The Intimacy Institution
by IKilledMyDogLastNight483
Summary: Aoba Seragaki recieved a mysterious invitation to a weird place, called The Intimacy Institution, where challenged, experienced or interested individuals can explore their sexuality, learn score tricks etc. Aoba accepts and shows up to the mysterious château, where the principal, Toue, seems to be hiding something from the rest.
1. Chapter 1

**The Intimacy Institution**  
_Chapter 1_

Aoba Seragaki held the invitation in his hand as he sat in his car.

"The Intimacy Institution – For sexually challenged, experimenting or interested beautiful people".

'What a silly name for an "institution"' Aoba thought to himself.

He wasn't really sure why he had said yes to go to that kind of place. It's not like a real college, you don't get real subjects like math and language, but, as far as he had researched, it was all about discovering yourself and feeling confident about your own sexuality. Not like he'd ever had problems with that in the past, but it was also a place to learn how to have a good time with a partner, how relationships last longer, and finally, how to score. Aoba was a bit interested in the latter, since he hadn't been on a date with a girl in years.

He'd heard the place was pretty good for a, let's be honest, sex school. His good friend, whom he'd known since he was little, Koujaku, went there, and had been there for a year already. He had no problems with the ladies, though, and it was probably to learn some new moves to impress girls. Aoba didn't say much to it; he could do as he pleased.

He put the paper back into the envelope and put it back into his bag and exited the car. The wind blew silently leaves of all colors around the giant building: a grand château from the 1800th century fenced by a brick wall with black, stylish poles on the top for the look. The building itself looked old school and beautiful, with towers, sections of halls and tall windows. It was obviously a bit more modern inside. Exactly how much, was Aoba finding out soon enough.

He walked up to the giant double door; it seemed it was the original one. He opened it up carefully, afraid that he maybe should be there, but he clenched his bag with the envelope tighter and entered the building.

The first thing he noticed inside was a beautiful chandelier with crystals hanging from the ceiling about two stories above his head. Then he took a look around and was astonished: it was a giant hall with a mild color for the marble floor and half of the walls, topped off with clean white walls. Pillars of light wood stood around the huge staircase of marble and bronze in the middle of the room. It looked sophisticated and well considered, because it made him feel like he was in a royal castle somewhere in the country side. He saw archways to both sides of him, almost everywhere, and he wondered where all those might led to. And more importantly: where was he supposed to go from here?

"Ahh, Aoba-san, welcome to my humble establishment," a reassuring voice said behind him. He turned around and saw the owner, Tatsou Toue, stand there, supported by a cane and monocle. He offered his hand out and Aoba politely shook it.

"Hello, nice to meet you. It's a beautiful place you've got here, Toue-sensei," Aoba said and smiled to him. Toue was happy that his lifework was being noticed, and nodded.

"Thank you. I spent a lot of money renovating this place. It was a nice little project, but I hope to do much bigger things in the future, than running this little institution," Aoba noticed a hint of disgust in his voice when he said the last part, but thought he shouldn't comment on it. Toue collected himself and said with a joyful voice: "So, let's go to my office so we can have a little talk before you get to settle in," He led Aoba up the stairs and to the right.

They stepped into a nice little office, bronze with dark wood. It was as sophisticated as the hall, but in a different way. Toue gestured toward a chair in front of his desk before sitting himself down by it. Aoba bowed slightly and sat down.

"So you like my place here, that's always a good thing," Toue began. "You might be wondering why you were sent an invitation to this place, hmm? Most other people here have paid a respectable amount of money to be able to be here, but I personally arranged for you to come here without paying up a single yen. Do you have any idea why?" he then asked. Aoba was caught a bit off guard by the question, but he saved it.

"My guess is publicity? If I am here, people will hear about your place and come running here," he answered. Truth be told, he had wondered a lot to why HE was selected and why, but it actually seemed logical enough now when he said it aloud. And he was a relatively wide known guy after all.

"That is correct, my friend. You see, we had a little bit of trouble filling up the spaces this year, so a little bit of advertisement wouldn't hurt at all," Toue said with a smile. Aoba got the idea and promised he would recommend the place to everyone who might be interested.

"Now, you do know that the kind of education here isn't normal. We don't teach school things, rather things about romance, relationships and trust. I'm sure you already know that by now?" Toue asked. Aoba nodded.

"And we have a strict policy, rule if you like, that 'no' always means no. Anything you're unwilling to do is totally fine, and you will not be judged. However, the more you practice the, ahem, teachings, the more you've already learned. And besides, the attendants here are all perfectly fine in looks and behavior, so should a more… intimate subject come up, it shouldn't be a problem, am I right?" he said in a weird tone. Aoba nodded again. He'd read all of this on his coil as soon as he got the invitation. He needed to know what he was getting into.

"I don't think I would mind, so that's fine," he just said.

"Great we're on the same page, Aoba-san. Now, about your route…" Toue began.

"It's okay," Aoba said. "I already got the papers from the secretary. I'll be on the heterosexual route along with the 14 other males, in room 23. I got it under control, Sir," he said confidently.

"Yes about that, Aoba-san, there has been a slight necessary change in the plans…" Toue said, but was then interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I'm very sorry, Aoba-san. Come in," he called. In the door stood a secretary in all purple clothes and brown hair. She looked to be around 40 years of age.

"I'm very sorry for interrupting, but Sei-san…" she was quickly interrupted, because Toue stood right up.

"I'll be right there, Yoshie-san. Please take care of our guest here in the meantime. I'm awfully sorry, Aoba-san, but I must go now. I hope you understand," he said apologizing. Aoba shook it off and gave him a reassuring smile. Toue exited the room, and Yoshie smiled at Aoba.

"He will be back again by tonight I think, but I see you've already got what you need," she said in a friendly tone, and Aoba nodded. The woman signaled for him to follow her, and he did. Aoba told Yoshie, that he was going to room 23, and she gladly led him there.

This place was huge. It was supposed to hold over 170 people, even though, as far as he'd checked, there only were 154, with him included. These people were all put into groups called routes based on their sexuality, so for example homosexual men didn't have to learn about how to pick up women.

There were 30 on the straight route, where he was placed. 15 men and 15 women. It was a good system, also so, if needed, all could find a partner.

Then there were 30 women on the lesbian route and 30 on the gay route, then a mix of 15 women and 15 men again on the bisexual route, again, so everybody could team up.

And lastly there was the asexual/pan/trans route with 30 people as well. Aoba wondered why it was even needed, but then again he didn't know much about asexual or transsexuals, so he kept his mouth shut.

There were also 4 people who didn't belong anywhere, maybe they had a hard time trying to figure out which to choose, but as far as Aoba knew, they were only gonna cooperate in very few of the routines. Besides, he only needed to focus on his own route.

In his mind, Aoba noted the path from the great hall to his new room. Up the stairs, to the right, then left at the end of the hall, and then look for room 23, one of the rear ones.

He bowed to Yoshie when he stood outside his door, and she hummed joyfully as she walked back to the secretary. He sat down the bag he had around his shoulder to reach for the key Yoshie gave to him before. He put it in the lock and unlocked the door. Then he opened it.

"WAAHH!" a female voice was loudly heard as a young woman screamed and fumbled around her. She lay on top of a man in a bed by the window of the giant room, and was only wearing her underwear. The man sat up quickly to see why she was making such noise, and looked towards the door while his girlfriend tried to find something to cover herself with.

Aoba stood hypnotized, and didn't know how to react. The man in the bed widened his eyes, and was about to yell, when Aoba recognized his reddish brown hair and white tattoos.

"Mizuki?" he asked and the man's face calmed. He then started to laugh in that laughter Aoba knew so well. Aoba scratched his neck while he smiled an awkward smile. He was then pushed backwards by the woman from before, slim, a bit pale and with long blue hair.

"**GET OOOUUUUTT!**" she yelled at the top of her lungs and smashed the door while Mizuki still laughed his butt off.

Aoba stood outside of the door and had no idea what just happened. What were they doing in his room? He had to find out what was going on. But strange how he knew the person who lived there. He giggled to himself as he walked back to Yoshie's office. At the funny scenario, at the way the girl reacted, at Mizuki's laughter. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, and Mizuki had the wrong room. No matter what, he was getting to the bottom of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Intimacy Institution**

* * *

_Hello, wonderful people. I'm IKilledMyDogLastNight483 (and just so we're clear, no, I did not kill any dog ever) and I'm from this weird little country in Europe that doesn't have English as its first language, so if my grammar or my wording sucks, you know why etc. etc._

_So this is The Intimacy Institution, glad that someone actually READ it. I'll update as often as I can, even though I have school and other things to attend to as well. I like reviews and messages, feel free to ask about anything. Alright alright, read ^^_

* * *

_Chapter 2_

"What do you mean there's no more room on the heterosexual route?" Aoba asked Yoshie when he reached her office. He'd walked straight to her after he apparently went wrong in Mizuki's room.

"It is as I said. All male spaces on the heterosexual route are occupied, so we had to move you to another route," the secretary said extenuating to the upset man in front of her desk.

"Then what route is that?" Aoba asked.

"The bisexual one," Yoshie answered. _The what?_

"There must be some kind of mistake, I'm not gay!" Aoba said stubbornly.

"_Bisexual_, Aoba-san," she corrected. "We tried our best to get you a satisfying route with the rooms we had left. If you don't like it, then maybe someone on the homosexual route might want to switch?"

"N-no no, no need for that," Aoba then said. "I'll take the room. Sorry for the trouble Yoshie-san," he bowed deeply, but Yoshie shook it off and smiled at him.

"Don't worry about it, Aoba-san. Come, let's find you your room," she said, and Aoba followed her out of the office.

* * *

"Here we are, Aoba-san. Would it be okay for me to call you Aoba-kun?" Yoshie asked as she handed him the key when they stood outside a room for the second time. This room was on the third floor on the right side, room number 92, the second one from the hall, so easy to remember.

"Sure, whatever you like," Aoba said politely. He was really ashamed of himself, the way he acted earlier, so he wanted to be nicer to her from now on. She seemed to be fine with it though.

"Great. Now, if you need anything, you know where I am," she said and went back to her office once again.

Aoba let out a relieved sigh, because now he was finally alone. He turned the key in the lock and a click was heard. He opened up the door and switched the lights on as soon as he entered.

What a place. The room was huge with giant windows on the opposite side of the door and a view over a lovely garden. A crystal chandelier, a smaller version of the one in the hall, hung from the ceiling and lit the entire room up. On the right side was a big round king-sized bed with pillows and covers of all shapes and sizes nicely placed around it. On the left side there was a big wooden desk that looked extremely expensive, and next to that a walk-in-closet behind nice white slide doors. The walls were painted white with a tint of pink in it, and it fit very well in with the white furniture and dark wooden panels. It was truly exquisite, and Aoba was almost hypnotized by its completion.

He walked inside and sat his bag on a comfy chair in the middle of the room. He looked around to look at everything and checked the closet out. It had all types of clothes: jacket, shirts, pants, even caps. But what surprised Aoba was that they all were in the same white color with blue lines all over it. He guessed it was probably a kind of uniform they had to wear, so he put out a pair of sweatpants, a blue tank top and a jacket out so he could wear them in the morning. He opened another door and saw a shining bathroom. Literally, it was so clean the countertops and porcelain objects shone with an almost unnatural light when he turned on the light. It had shampoos and soaps already, even some for a bubble bath for the bathtub. He closed the door carefully again and went back to the big room.

It was getting darker outside, and he noticed he was very tired. He took his shoes, jacket and pants off and put them in his bag and then threw himself on the big bed. It was super soft, and he felt like he was flying. He wondered a bit why they were _that_ soft, but was too tired to think more about it. He double-clapped and the lights turned off, and then he dozed off to sleep.

* * *

Aoba was gently awoken in the night by some noise coming from outside of his window. Singing? In the middle of the night? Aoba's room was still very dark, but he was afraid that if he turned on the lights, the song would go away. He lay perfectly still and listened carefully to the song from outside of the window.

"Sway, sway, swaying in between the waves," he heard. It sounded so beautiful, almost like a dream. Then it suddenly stopped, and Aoba looked out of his window. Only the moon was visible in the night, so he lay down again and fell back asleep.

* * *

At exactly 8 o'clock in the morning he was woken up by a message on his coil. Or rather, an alarm clock he didn't set up himself. _Wonder if this place hacked into my coil or something. _He sat up in his bed and looked down at it. It showed a little panda-thing who spoke:

"Good morning, Aoba-kun! Welcome to your first day on the Intimacy Institute. Hurray!" confetti and fireworks blew up around it, and it danced around a little before it continued.

"You and the other attendees are going to meet up in the cafeteria area on the 1st floor to the right or left – you decide! – of the stairs and then just follow the signs, it is the easiest thing! Be sure to wear the clothes from your new closets when you're not in your room! ~  
In the eating area you will have some DELICIOUS breakfast and meet up with your route mates, isn't that great?" _I guess?_

"You will also be briefed on where you have to go from there; you will receive a schedule and be shown around a little, yay! The real program won't start until tomorrow, so you have time to get settled in and get comfortable around your new route mates. You're gonna need it!" It winked and jumped around a little more.

"That's all! Remember: at 9 in the eating area, see you there!" it finished and then the coil turned black again.  
"What a weird panda…" Aoba mumbled to himself, but then got out of bed and went to the pure white bathroom. He took a long warm bath and felt amazing when he got out. He then dressed himself in the clothes he found yesterday. He took a quick glace of himself in the mirror, ruffled the long blue hair a bit, then picked his bag up and left the room.

* * *

"Down all the stairs, then either to the right or left side…" Aoba mumbled when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He was a bit nervous that he might not be able to find it, but then he saw all the signs put up everywhere, and that calmed him some. He walked fast as he turned right and around the corner, but then he felt something hard.

"Ow!" he said, and then looked up. He'd just walked into some dude! How embarrassing.

"I'm very, very sorry, I wasn't seeing where I was going, and…" he began, but then took a better look at the man he'd almost run over just now. He was only a bit taller than Aoba, and pretty slim. He had blonde hair and a weird green hat that matched his black/white/green outfit. He looked like a walking fashion disaster, even though it also looked kind of cool. He looked directly at Aoba, who could now see all the piercings in his face.

"It's fine," he said emotionless.

"But I just rammed into you, didn't it…" Aoba began, but was interrupted yet again.

"I said, it's fine," He then walked away again, in the opposite direction of everyone else, but Aoba only thought about how he could still walk. He had run into him full speed; he even humped a tiny bit himself now. But he decided not to think too much of it, after all he wasn't in uniform anyways.

* * *

The cafeteria was huge. Like really huge. The panda was right: no matter what way you went, you would find it. It was the whole back of the château and filled both the first and second floor, where a small balcony was set around the walls. The style was, you guessed it, as sophisticated and unique as the rest of the place, and it was simply breathtaking. Light from the outside shone through the great windows and lit everything up crystal-like. Aoba stood for a whole minute and just took in the details of this incredible place. Then he noticed that there were people already gathering by the tables around, so he figured he might want to find out where he was supposed to sit.

The room had 4 big and long tables in the middle that stood 10 feet from each other and then 2 half their size to the left side of the room. On the far right wall stood a long table with food of all kinds, from Japanese to American to Italian to Scandinavian.

Aoba was starving, and ran up to the table immediately and filled a plate with all kinds of food: soft rice and a soy fish sauce, bread filled with cheese and ham, pancakes as thick as his hand and a weird round pastry that tasted like chocolate and rum. He looked around, and it didn't seem that people sat by their routes, but just wherever they wanted. That gave him a chance to sit by whoever he wanted, and he thought he might go find Mizuki.

Mizuki sat by one of the last tables by a bunch of other people. He had his arm around the girl from yesterday, who clung tightly to him. Aoba came up to them and Mizuki waved at him.

"Aoba, hey!" he said cheerfully. The girl in his arm turned away from Aoba with a loud 'hmph!', obviously still mad at him from yesterday.

"Oh yes, this is Usui, my, well, girlfriend, but you already kind of know that," Mizuki laughed, and Aoba smiled a bit, mostly just to be polite. The people at the table started whispering, and Aoba felt extremely uncomfortable.

"Uhm, you don't have room for one more, do you?" he asked awkwardly.

"Oh, sadly no. Sorry, Aoba," Mizuki said with a sad expression, but Aoba waved it off.

"It's fine, I'll just see if I can find Koujaku," he said and walked off. As he looked around, he could hear laughter from the table behind him, but he didn't want to let it get to him.

"Aoba! Over here!" he heard, and he turned in the direction that the voice came from. Koujaku sat by one of the big tables and patted a spot next to him. Aoba smiled and went to sit down by his friend.

"Big place, huh?" Koujaku said with his usual playful tone.

"Hell yeah, it's huge," Aoba answered and began eating his food. The panda was right; it really was delicious.

"So, on the way here I saw a scheme of our routes, you know, one with the names on, and I couldn't help but notice you weren't on the heterosexual one? Like, if you're not into that, you can just tell me…" he started awkwardly, but Aoba stopped him.

"No no no, it's not like that! They were out of space, so I'm on the bisexual route," he explained, and Koujaku nodded understandingly.

"Oh, I see. That's why you're wearing that symbol-thing, isn't it?" he asked, and Aoba looked down at his jacket and noticed a little badge with a male/female symbol on it. He looked at Koujaku, who was also wearing the blue set from the closets with a male symbol on it. _I see, the heterosexual route._

"Yup, that's it," Aoba answered with a grin.

"Sure you wouldn't want to try the homo route out a bit?" Koujaku joked, but Aoba shoved him.

"Shut up, you hippo!"

"I was only joking," he said and smiled sincerely. Aoba softened and took a bite of his bread.

"Uhm, excuse me?" they then heard a deep voise say. They turned to the stranger, a young man at about Aoba's age, who stood in the obligatory blue holding a tray of food. "Can I sit here? The other seats are mostly taken," he asked.

"Sure, sit down, pal!" Koujaku said, and the young man nodded. The two moved aside and the man sat between them.

"I'm Ren, homosexual route," Ren said and shook both the men's hands. As he was beginning to eat, Koujaku sent Aoba a weird look behind his back. Was it because Ren was gay?

"I'm Aoba, and this is Koujaku," Aoba said to Ren and smiled at him. Koujaku remained silent for now.

"Nice to meet you two. I see you took the pancakes too, Aoba-san?" he said and pointed at Aoba's tray.

"Yes I did, they're my favorite," he said. "You can just call me Aoba if you want," he added. He wasn't really a big fan of all the formal pronouns, since everyone was equal here after all. Equal clothes, equal tables, equal rooms with equal facilities…

Which reminded him:

"Hey, did you guys hear something yesterday too?" Aoba asked the two. They just looked weirdly at him, like he was talking backwards.

"I didn't hear anything..?" Koujaku said, and Ren nodded along.

"There was singing? Something about swaying,"

"There was no singing, Aoba," Koujaku repeated. Was he going crazy? Or were the others?

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen!" was heard loudly throughout the room, and all eyes went to the balcony. Toue stood there and held a microphone in his hand.

"Welcome, all, to the Intimacy Institution. A place where everyone, regardless of their sexual preferences – or lack thereof – can explore themselves and each other through our experimenting program and educated teachers. Flyers of the programs here for the different routes can be found on your way out of the cafeteria, in Yoshie-san's office or on your coils, and you will always be told in time where to go next. The staff and I wish you all a nice stay here, and of course, if you need anything I will be at my office," Toue said and then disappeared from the balcony. A wonderful song with violin and piano then came on the speakers, and the background noise of other people talking returned.

"Hmm, thanks Toue-san. You wouldn't run this place if you could do something else, huh?" Koujaku mumbled mockingly to himself, and Aoba spoke:

"He said he would want to run something bigger someday," He remembered that from Toue's office. Koujaku was about to answer, when Ren suddenly tensed up.

"Uh-oh…" he said silently.

"What's wrong, Ren?" Aoba asked, and Ren pointed a person from the crowd out.

"My twin brother…" he said, and just as he did that person turned to their table and waved at them.

* * *

_Yeah, this chapter was pretty long compared to the first one, but I had so much to write about ^^ Hope y'all like it, byee  
_


	3. Chapter 3

**The Intimacy Institution**

* * *

_Hello, sweety pies! I'm sorry for updating so late, I've just started school again, so it might take longer before I update again. But I work as hard as I can so I can update this fic as often as possible ^^ thanks for the many nice reviews I've gotten, it just totally makes my day! If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, you can also PM me, I love to talk ^^_

* * *

Chapter 3

Blue hair, yellow eyes, and a crazy grin taped to his face.

"Hello, oniisan," he said to Ren as he stood next to the table. He was wearing normal clothes, not the uniform, and it was a jacket in cold colors and with headphones around his neck. Ren didn't look happy about the situation, even less so when his brother spoke again.

"We always sit together, brother. Aren't you gonna introduce me to your new friends?" he asked, and Ren pointed to Aoba and Koujaku and introduced them. Koujaku was out of words; he didn't know the guy, and he seemed really creepy. Aoba lifted his hand to the new person and smiled.

"Nice to meet you. So you're Ren's brother?"

"I am. Sly Blue, but just call me Sly," he said and winked at Aoba, who blushed a bit at the awkward gesture.

"Just sit down already, Sly, or you'll make a scene," Ren said impatiently and pulled Sly down in a chair next to Koujaku. Sly sat sloppily down and started eating his food, rice and dry meatballs, very slowly, using his fingers. Ren sighed loudly and was obviously embarrassed by his brother. All Aoba thought about was how they looked almost nothing alike. Ren had black-ish blue hair that almost reached his shoulders and a mild face that looked like he was thinking hard about something all the time. Sly however…

"Uhm…" Aoba was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Koujaku stutter awkwardly while looking hard at Sly.

"What? Did the cat steal your tongue?" Sly asked and grinned mockingly.

"You and Aoba… You really look a lot alike," he finally said, and Sly took a long glance at Aoba and then giggled again.

"Yeah, you're right. Oi, Aoba. I get that I'm cool, but you don't have to pretend to be me to get some of this," Sly said, and as Aoba turned his head towards Sly, he'd gotten up to Aoba's seat, bent down and…

"Eh?!" Aoba burst out when he felt Sly lick his cheek. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Hahahahahahaha!" Sly laughed so he couldn't even breathe and sat down in his seat again, still giggling.

"You..!" Koujaku said, and looked like he was about to get really angry, but then Ren came in between them and bowed deeply.

"I'm very sorry on my brother's behalf! If there's any way I can make up for it…" he began, but Aoba, who was still a bit surprised at the whole scenario, stopped him.

"I'm okay, it's okay, Ren," he said, and Ren relaxed a bit. Sly still laughed, and Koujaku looked like he was a second away from shoving him, but Aoba sent him a look that said 'Don't', so he didn't. Apart from Sly's laughter, the rest of the meal went on in silence with stares from the other tables.

* * *

"I swear, next time I see that bastard he's really gonna get it!" Koujaku cussed to himself after they'd left the cafeteria, but Aoba elbowed him in the side.

"Don't, I'm alright. I just feel bad for Ren, he looked so embarrassed by his brother earlier," Aoba said and thought about how Sly had embarrassed them during breakfast. Ren had looked as if he wanted to dig a hole and hide in there forever.

"Yeah, you're right… Is it just me or was he staring a lot at me during breakfast? Like, was he coming on to me?" Koujaku asked with a weird tone.

"No he wasn't. Just because he's gay doesn't mean he wants to get into everybody's pants, you know," Aoba said annoyed.

"No, I know, but he's still a bit… you know," Koujaku said.

"Oh, don't be a homophobe, Koujaku. You'd still be friends with me if I were gay, right? Not that I am, but hypothetically," Aoba quickly added.

"Y-yeah, you're right. Sorry," Koujaku said, and just as Aoba was about to answer, they heard someone call behind them.

"Aoba, Koujaku!" the deep voice called, and they turned around to see Ren come running towards them. The white jacket with the homosexual route's green stripes on it was expanding and contracting fast; Ren had run fast.

"Again, I'm terribly sorry for my brother, he's nuts," Ren said worried while trying to catch his breath. "If there's anything I can do to make up for it, just the least, please tell me. It's just that we've always been together, mostly me trying to hold him under control, but also for him to scold me for being too serious," he explained.

"Really, Ren, it's fine. I was just surprised, I guess," Aoba said scratching his neck. It had been extremely awkward before, but now he just wanted to calm down a bit. "If you want, later me and Koujaku are going to find our friend Mizuki and do something, so you're welcome to join," he said smiling, earning raised eyebrows from Koujaku, whom he stabbed back with his eyes.

"I'd love to join. I'll make sure to keep Sly away this time," Ren said and bowed.

"Yes, that would probably be best," Koujaku added, but Aoba broke in.

"No, he's welcome too if he wants. If he can act nicely that is?" Aoba said the last like a question for Ren meaning: '_can_ he act nicely later?' and Ren nodded again and bowed even deeper.

"Thanks, I'll do my best. I'll see you then," he said and smiled at them, and Koujaku and Aoba turned around to walk away.

"See?" Koujaku hissed.

"What? What is it now?" Aoba asked irritated.

"He's totally looking at my butt, that little faggot..!" he said, and Aoba was getting pretty pissed with him now, when Ren called out to them.

"Uhm, Koujaku?" he asked cautiously.

"What is it? If you want a date, then look somewhere else. I've got the _straight_ badge, see? You know 'straight'?" he said and pointed to his badge on the white set of clothes.

"It's not that, Koujaku. You have something on your pants, I think you sat on something," he said. Aoba bent down to look at the back of Koujaku's pants and it had a dark red stain on them.

"He's right, you've sat on some jam from the cafeteria," Aoba concluded and sent Koujaku a mean look. 'Apologize!'

"Oh…" Koujaku blushed deeply. "I-I'm sorry, Ren-san," he stammered, but Ren smiled and held up his hand.

"It's fine. I know you're on the straight route, Koujaku, so I know you're _way _out of my league," he said sarcastically and winked at Aoba, who was struggling to contain his laughter. Then he walked up the stairs towards the homosexual route's rooms and disappeared.

"Hahahahahaha, Koujaku!" Aoba laughed, and Koujaku, who looked like he'd been terribly burnt, just pouted on their way to his room.

* * *

"I couldn't possibly have known he was the prince of sass, now could I, A-o-ba?" Koujaku said pissed while Aoba sat on his bed and laughed his ass off.

"Haha… But you gotta admit: it was a pretty cool comeback," Aoba said, drying some of the tears of laughter from his eyes. Koujaku was not amused and Aoba who was now calming down walked over to Koujaku who stood by the open window and smoked a cigarette. As he breathed the smoke out, he spoke:

"Ahh, my only vice…" Aoba hugged his shoulders from behind and leaned on him.

"One of many," he said and giggled. Koujaku decided not to take it as an insult and leaned back a bit into Aoba's embrace.

"We've known each other for a pretty long time, huh?" Koujaku said and took a deep breath of the cigarette.

"We sure have. Since we were both small and cute," Aoba laughed and let go of Koujaku to join him leaning over the edge of the window.

"I didn't know you were coming here where I've been for a year already. I'm glad to have known you for such a long time," he spoke sincerely and looked at Aoba who was now blushing a bit.

"Uhm, you too, Koujaku. Hey don't go all gay for me, will ya'?" he said after a short break and pushed Koujaku lightly while laughing. He went back inside the giant room and threw himself back onto Koujaku's bed.

"No, that's not what I meant," Koujaku stammered and followed Aoba, sitting himself down on a chair next to the bed. "I know," Aoba says just to clear up, but Koujaku knows.

"I still can't believe we go to the same institution. I didn't think it was for you?" Koujaku asked.

"I was offered an all-inclusive stay, so I thought: 'why not?'. And it might be good for me, to meet new people, maybe even 'the one'. Not to sound cheesy or anything," he added, because it would almost be too good to be true if he met his soul mate at some weird institution.

"Yeah, maybe. Now that you _are_ on the bisexual team, you might meet a male version of 'the one' though," Koujaku smirked, and Aoba shoved him.

"You'd like that wouldn't you? Not going to happen," Aoba shook his head and Koujaku laughed.

"Maybe we should get going? Ren and Sly are waiting for us to pick them up and go to Mizuki's," Aoba then said and ignored the forced look from his friend.

"Come on, they might be cool to hang out with, you know. And if you're not careful you might end up falling for Ren," Aoba giggled and winked at Koujaku who was now blushing deeply again.

"Let's just go," he said and pushed Aoba off the bed and out of the door.

* * *

"Hey Copycat and Cow-jackass! Over here!" Sly called out to Koujaku and Aoba when they were in the main hall where they said they'd meet up. Koujaku already tensed up, but Aoba seemed to be handling it fine. Sly stood in the obligatory uniform with red stripes instead of Aoba's blue and a badge with a big red cross on it. _So the asexual/pansexual/transsexual route, huh? _But he stood alone.

"Hello, Sly. Where's Ren?" Aoba asked him, and surprisingly Sly's mood dropped a bit.

"My brother's not feeling well, he has a heart condition, you see, so he won't make it," Sly replied seriously, and Aoba suddenly felt very guilty for thinking bad about Sly because he seemed so reckless, and also for making Ren run after then earlier, which probably sparked it.

"Will he be okay?" Koujaku asked before Aoba could.

"Yeah, he just has to rest in his room," Sly answered and then gave them a smirk. "Guess we're gonna have all the fun without him," _Aaaaand that's Sly again._

They decided to go to Mizuki's room to pick him up for lunch soon. Aoba showed them the way; he'd already been there after all. _That is gonna be a funny story to tell someday._

Suddenly Aoba stopped again and listened carefully. _Was that..?_

"_Sway, sway, swaying in between the waves,"_ There it was again!

"Shh, listen, guys!" Aoba said determined and the others kept silent.

"What… is that?" Koujaku stammered, and Aoba jumped 10 feet when he felt something on his shoulder.

"AHH, WHO'S THERE?!" he shouted and turned around to see a big scary gas mask stare back at him. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Ah, Master! I heard your voice, so I came," he gasmask said with a happy voice, and Aoba felt like he was going to faint.

* * *

_Hope you all liked the chapter, please review it for, that would mean a lot ^^ bye byeee_


	4. Chapter 4

The Intimacy Institution

* * *

_Hi guys! Christ, I'm SO sorry I didn't update sooner, but I've been so busy the past week that I didn't have time to write! But yeah, hopefully you remember what happened in the last chapter? Yeah, Clear popped up and scared the crap out of Aoba... And so it continues... ^^_

* * *

Chapter 4

"Aoba? Are you okay?" Aoba heard a familiar voice call. When he opened his eyes again, he was supported by Sly's arms, because his feet had almost slipped under him. Koujaku stood in front of him with a worried look on his face, and beside him…

"Master? Please don't be dead~!" the gasmask called out and came _really_ close.

"W-who are you?!" Aoba blurted out without thinking about being friendly first. He just wanted him to get the newest weirdo out of his face.

"I'm Clear, bisexual route. Just as yourself, Master!" the man sang, but Aoba still couldn't speak.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I scared you, Master!" he then said and took a step back to let Aoba get some space. He stood up on his own feet, relieving Sly from holding him. Koujaku looked suspiciously at this 'Clear'.

"Then why don't you take off your mask instead of scaring the shit out of people?" He held his hand out in front of Aoba in protection, even though it was totally unnecessary.

"No!" Clear then yelled. "I can't! I've been told not to," Sly started giggling to himself, something Koujaku and Aoba had stopped caring about after a while.

"You guys here with your faces. Here we have a copycat, a scarred ninja and now a gasmask? Are we on some kind of mission I don't know of?" Sly laughed loudly, only finding it funny himself. Koujaku's face went red, so Aoba felt like he should defend Clear. Also for Ren's sake.

"It's fine. If you don't want to, you don't have to," he said friendly and smiled at him. Clear clapped excitedly; you could almost see the stars and flowers float around his head.

"Thank you, Master!" he cheered.

"Oh, by the way, I'm A…" Aoba began, but was then interrupted. By a bell?

"Ohh, lunch!" Clear was thrilled, as read by his voice and the way he hopped up and down. Without another word he turned around on his heels and walked downstairs towards the cafeteria. Oh, a lunch bell. Aoba was about to call out to him, but Koujaku shook his head.

"Don't worry about that airhead. Let's go find Mizuki," He took Aoba by the arm and a giggling Sly followed the two as they walked the last short trip to Mizuki's room.

* * *

"Wanna join us for lunch?" Aoba asked happily as the trio stood in Mizuki's door. The latter was in white sweat pants and a purple tank top for the heterosexual route, and the room was dark. He scratched his neck and let out an awkward laugh.

"Ohh, this is kind of embarrassing, you guys. I just made plans with someone else, and later we're gonna go out, so…" He apologized and said he wanted to make it up to them, but Koujaku interrupted him.

"It's okay, Mizooks. We'll just see you later," Mizuki waved at them and closed the door.

"No worries, guys. We'll just eat by ourselves," Aoba said trying to cheer them up, but the atmosphere was still a bit lousy from the rejection. They all went to the cafeteria downstairs, Koujaku and Aoba walking next to each other and Sly walking behind them and hiding a grin behind the hands put up in front of his face.

* * *

"So, Kayak-Jack. You've already been here for a year, eh? Tell us your secrets," Sly pushed when they sat by the same spot as they had in the morning. The room was crowded with people who'd been here since the bell rang or hadn't even left. The breakfast table had been replaced with another one; one for lunch. All kinds of hot and cold dishes were lined up in color order, starting with red pepper and tomato salad, and ending with purple crab cakes on black caviar. Aoba had filled his plate with as much as he could, even though he'd only come to green on the scale, and sat now between Sly and Koujaku so they wouldn't freak out on each other.

"It's _Koujaku_. And there are no secrets you won't learn about in the classes," he tried explaining, but Sly wasn't satisfied.

"Not that, Blowjaku, I don't care about the classes," he said. Aoba was guessing it was true, since he was on the a/trans/pansexual route. He wondered what they were going to get taught there at all.

Sly leaned closer to Koujaku behind Aoba and spoke: "Do people fuck each other for money here, do heteros go gay, do the straight people dunk the bis' heads in the toilets? Spit it out!" Sly sounded so excited, and Koujaku's face went all red.

"Why, you!" Sly had pulled back to his seat, and Aoba had to hold Koujaku from jumping him. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Don't freak out on me, my brother's sick, you know," Sly completely changed attitude and spoke in a sad voice. Koujaku's anger seemed to slowly dissolve and he sat back down. "That's right. I'm sorry," he said in an apologetic tone. Sly only giggled in response.

"To your information, no one dunks anyone's head in a toilet, thank you very much," Koujaku responded irritated. Aoba was a bit relieved at this: not that he was afraid of being bullied, but he was happy no one else was bullied (so he had to help them out).

"What about prostitution?" Aoba asked. The two others looked at him with a weird look. It wasn't like him to ask that kind of thing.

"Uhm, not what I've heard of," Koujaku answered hesitantly. "Although…" Sly leaned closer to Koujaku and focused all his attention on his answer.

"I've heard that some people on the asexual route sometimes do services for money. I don't know if it's sex or favors with money, or what it is. Besides, they're mere rumors," he added the last part, and felt pretty uncomfortable when both Aoba's and Sly's eyes were on him.

"Don't tell me you're going to see what you can buy from them, guys," Aoba, who had spaced out for a moment, suddenly woke back up and shook his head.

"No, no, that's not it. I just wanted to know what kind of place this is," he assured, and Koujaku sighed with relief.

"Oh, hoped so. At least you're not some weirdo," he said and laughed the awkward situation off. Sly, who'd been silent for a while now, then spoke:

"Well, if you guys aren't going to check it out, I sure am," he said with a bit of an offended tone. Koujaku then felt bad for indirectly have called him a weirdo, but didn't think much about it. After all, it had been Aoba's idea to invite Sly to lunch, not his.

"Then let us know how it goes," Aoba said and sent Sly a kind smile. "You bet," Sly nodded. The pack continued their lunch, which was as delicious as the breakfast had been. Meanwhile Koujaku sat and pointed a few of the people he knew out, and told the others a bit about them:

"Mizuki's girlfriend over there, Usui, was here for 2 months last year as well. She's on the heterosexual route, as you can see by the color of her uniform,"

"Wait, so you can have partners while you're here?" asked Aoba.

"Yes, sure. It's your private life, so they can't prevent you from seeing anyone. There is only one route you can't touch, though," Koujaku explained in a serious tone.

"Let me guess: the asexual route?" Sly asked, sounding a bit bored. Koujaku had been talking uninterrupted for a long time, and Sly was losing his patience.

"No, not them," Koujaku pointed to a small table closest to the door. "The ones without a route. Some call them The Factionless, The Unclear, The Doubtful, pick your favorite,"

Aoba and Sly turned their eyes to where Koujaku had pointed, where four people were seated, and the first thing they noticed:

"They aren't wearing a uniform?" they said in unison. Koujaku nodded.

"They've come here, but haven't decided on a route yet. They're with a special team who helps them select one before the first two weeks, or they get expelled,"

Aoba looked closer, and saw a familiar face in the group.

"Hey, the guy in green rammed into me this morning!" he exclaimed, and now Sly woke back up.

"Want me to give him the same treatment?" he grinned as he clenched his knuckles together. Aoba quickly shook his head.

"I was wondering why he wasn't wearing a uniform, but I guess they don't need it after all," Aoba stated, and Koujaku nodded. They decided to finish their food quicker, because Sly said he had to do something important afterwards.

* * *

"I'll see you at dinner, Aoba," Koujaku waved at them both as he returned to his room. He wasn't sure if Sly was going to join them, so he wouldn't want to include him in a promise.

"Sure," Aoba waved back, and now stood with Sly near the exit of the cafeteria. As soon as Koujaku was out of sight, Sly turned around and started walking back to the tables with food. There were still lots left, but it was getting a bit cold from standing out for a few hours.

"What are you doing?" Aoba asked when he saw Sly pick up a new plate and start filling it with food. "Are you still hungry?"

"It's for Ren," he said in a very serious tone, which surprised Aoba. He really cared for his brother, didn't he?

"Want me to help you?" Aoba looked around for anything Sly hadn't already taken.

"You can bring him some water," he said unsurely, so Aoba grabbed a jug. What was he feeling right now?

"Are you sad about your brother?" Aoba asked with concern in his voice, but Sly laughed it off.

"Nah, he's fine. He just needs to rest. Be careful not to drop that thing, or it'll break to a million pieces," he added when he saw Aoba's insecure grip on the glass object. He switched hands right away, and thought about why he was so careful about not dropping it. The two left the eating area on tiptoes, just in case.

* * *

"We're coming in, Ren," Aoba said after knocking Ren's door. The gay route's hallway and rooms were just like the other ones he'd seen so far, so it didn't seem they treated some routes better than others. What a nice idea.

Aoba opened the door with his free hand, for both Sly's hands were occupied at the moment. The room was completely dark, with only a few beams shining through the curtains. There were pillows and covers all over the floor, and a little ball of blankets and duvets sat in the middle of the floor, taped to a funny machine, while looking at a projection from a coil on the wall. It was obviously Ren, but he looked so different from this morning: he was pale, looked tired, and had a mask over his mouth. Poor thing…

"Hey, oniisan," Sly greeted cheerfully, as if it was nothing, and when Ren turned to the two, Aoba was surprised by the look on his face. He smiled.

"Hi, brother. Hi, Aoba," his face lit even more up when he saw Aoba come in too, but the latter was still a bit stunned by Ren's face. How could he look so happy in this state?

"I gave him a bit of medicine and left him with my coil," Sly nudged, and as far as Aoba could see the coil had been used to display an animal show on the wall like a big theatre screen. But it seemed he was too tired to actually watch it, though.

"We brought you some food, Ren," Aoba said and pointed at Sly's plate. Ren smiled from ear to ear, and unwrapped himself from his fort of softness. Aoba sat the jug of water down on the table in the middle of the room and helped Ren to a chair. He had a bit of trouble walking, but he made it without falling.

"When will it wear off?" Aoba whispered a bit concerned, because Ren's posture was about to collapse in the chair, which was kind of unsettling.

"I'll put him to sleep when he's eaten, then it'll be gone till he wakes up. He doesn't usually get something that strong, but his condition has worsened the past few months, so he needs something else to take the pain," Sly explained as he sat the plate down in front of his brother and put the chopsticks next to it.

"Thank you for the food," Ren chimed, and picked up the chopsticks to eat. Meanwhile, Sly had found a straw for the jug, so he could drink easily. Aoba had to admit: he felt a bit creepy for just staring at Ren while he was eating. Of course Sly didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Are you going to be okay?" Aoba was worried now, so he felt he had to ask.

"Yes, it's not severe," he smiled. "I'll be fine by dinnertime, so I can join you guys," The last part was more of a question like: 'Can I join you for dinner?'. Aoba nodded fast.

"Of course! Sly can join too. Koujaku will be there too, but I'm not sure about Mizuki,"

The two told Ren about the past hours; about the Gasmask guy, Clear, how Mizuki almost straight up rejected them, and what they'd talked about at lunch. When they were done talking, Ren had finished eating too. Aoba offered to take the plate and jug back to the kitchen, so he said goodbye to the two and left the room with a nice feeling. He liked those two.

* * *

Now the four were back together again in the cafeteria, and sat by their 'usual' table. Koujaku was in a particularly good mood, Ren was well again, and Sly was, well, cheeky as ever.

"But have you seen how those guys make up to her? They're a second away from each building her a nest of gold nuggets, and throw rocks at each other," he grinned and eyed three young people, where the two boys seemed to flirt a bit excessively with the girl.

"They're new. The girl's name is Mio, and the guys are Kio and Nao or whatever the hell they're called," Koujaku explained. He was seated next to Ren, and for once didn't look annoyed by it. Most of the time they'd had a long conversation about animal shows on different channels, and they seemed to be getting along fine. Aoba heard Sly complain about how his room had no heat, so they need to get it fixed before he could sleep there. To be nice, Aoba offered to share his room with him for a couple of days, but Sly (thankfully) thanked no, because he just 'crashed with his brother'.

"What about that girl over there?" Ren asked and pointed to a girl with long blonde hair and a pink bow that was sitting a few tables away.

"That's Clara, heterosexual route," Koujaku explained, but was then cut off by Sly, who burst in.

"She's mighty fine, isn't she?" he smirked, and Koujaku blushed a little.

"Well, if you're into that kind of girl," he mumbled and stuffed his mouth with delicacies from the dinner menu. It was even more spectacular than the lunch and breakfast combined, and every bite bombarded your taste buds with new sensations. From bread, fish, and beef to vegetables, potatoes, and sauces were lined up and ready for serving. They all ate to their hearts' content, and were totally stuffed within 30 minutes, and it was getting late.

"Want to hang out tonight?" Koujaku asked, and as much as they all wanted to, they knew they needed to get some sleep before tomorrow. They said goodbye and split up, so Aoba was left on his own to find back to his room.

But first, he looked a bit around the entrance hall again. It was such a beautiful sight, that he couldn't help but stare at every little detail.

_Thud._

Huh? He heard something, didn't he? He turned his eyes from the chandelier in the ceiling, and to the floor, where he saw a little package with a string, that seemed to have fallen out. Did someone drop it?

The second he'd thought of that, his eyes caught a guy opening the front door, so he hollered at him.

"Hey, you!" he called, and the man stopped his action.

"What?" he said in a dark voice, and barely turned his head to look at Aoba.

"I think you dropped this," he said and picked up the package from the floor. The man in the door turned around and walked towards him, and Aoba could see his face now. It had a dark color, a bit like Mizuki, and a big nose. He had long brown dreadlocks that were red at the end, which matched his white and red uniform from the asexual route. Wait…

"Are you one of those who sell people stuff?" he asked, but the man didn't answer. He stood a few feet from Aoba, who was surprised how tall the man really was.

"Go to bed," he simply said and yanked the package out of Aoba's hands and dropped it on the ground.

"But isn't it yours? Is it someone else's you're only holding on to? What other kind of stuff can you get? Are there oth…" He was cut short when he received a fist to his shoulder. It hit him so hard, he took a few steps back, and gasped for his breath.

"I said: 'Go to bed', so leave it alone," he repeated blank faced and went out of the door. Aoba rubbed his shoulder and stood back up straight. That guy… He left the package on the ground like he was told, even though it bothered him why anyone would even leave stuff in the middle of a hallway. He humped a bit, but made his way back to his room safely.

* * *

Ahh. It was nice to be back, and away from all the other people. They were nice and all, but he liked being alone for now. He took off his clothes immediately and put on a simple top that he could sleep in. He sat down on a soft chair by the window and checked his coil. He received a message from The Intimacy Institution, probably tomorrow schedule, but he was too tired to read it. But he also received another message from and unknown sender. He shrugged and opened it up.

He heard a song, like the ones in old 8-bit games, and then an old game layout popped up. What kind of retro thing was this? How could a coil even run it? It showed a little film of a knight, who rode a white horse to a big castle, which he then entered. Inside were lots of little people, who all cheered for the castle's king. Then it changed to a brick wall, where there was a heart shape, but the heart was missing. Then it was over, and closed itself down. That was weird.

"… come on, we haven't got all night!" someone yelled. It sounded very quiet in Aoba's room, so it must have come from outside. Aoba looked out of his window and saw a few guys running back and forth between a car, and a small shed behind the château. He recognized the guy with the dreadlocks from earlier, who punched his shoulder. It still kinda hurt. What an odd guy.

He decided he didn't really care, and he was too tired to even think anymore, so he turned off the lights and plopped down on the bed. _Ahh, so soft_. He turned a few times before he was fast asleep.

* * *

_BOOM!_

Aoba was awoken in the middle of the night. _Again_. Still being half asleep, he pulled the covers over his head and shut any noise out of his head. _Seriously, what is it with this place and sounds in the middle of the night?_

* * *

_Hope you liked that chapter, please review and tell me if you did ^^ I know, it was pretty long; I DID have my doubts wether to split it into two stories, but Nah. Please tell if if you want one big chapter or a lot of small ones, because they tend to get longer O.o Byyyeeee_


	5. Chapter 5

The Intimacy Institution

* * *

_Merry Christmas, everybody! I'm sooooo sorry I haven't been able to upload, but I just got through a series of stupid tests up to the holidays, and I just hated that I didn't have time to write. Gomennnn~ It's a long chapter this time though, which I've heard you like, so I'll keep them long whenever I write too much. I'll try my best to be faster at uploading in the future, so enjoy the chapter._

* * *

Chapter 5

Curled up in a small ball in the middle of the bed, Aoba snored soundly in a deep slumber. If it hadn't been for the loud ringtone on his coil, he probably wouldn't have heard it at all. It beeped loudly, the only thing that could really get him up in the morning. He groaned loudly and turned around to reach for his coil on the bed stand, and pressed the off-button hard. He sighed.

"Today's the big day, huh?" he mumbled to himself. He sat up and scratched his eyes. He grabbed his coil and looked at it. A message had been sent to him overnight, but he didn't bother reading it at the moment. He jumped out of bed a tad more energetic than he had anticipated, and found his clothes he'd put out the night before. He pulled the gray shirt over his head, slipped into a comfortable pair of sweat pants and found a matching blue jacket. He had to say: this place's sense of fashion was spot on.

He pulled his bag over his shoulder, and felt his growling stomach. He was so hungry, and couldn't wait to taste some of that wonderful food again. As he was leaving his room, he looked at his messages on his coil. There was the one from yesterday; it was labeled "Schedule". Then there also was a new one with the label "IMPORTANT". He thought that the institution probably wouldn't send out those kinds of mails if they weren't serious, but on the other hand it was well organized, so what on earth could go wrong?

He decided to read his schedule as he walked to the cafeteria. Hopefully he'd bump into Ren, Sly and Koujaku on the way. He didn't dare to hope for Mizuki, since he seemed like he was too busy for them. But it was okay, since he liked the small quartet they'd formed. As far as he could read, none of the classes he was going to have would be with either of them, since they were all on 4 different routes. He kept his head high, hoping to meet new friends instead. That weird gasmask guy said he was on the same route, right..?

A little guy, looking around 17 with the reddest hair Aoba'd ever seen in his life, was running around on one of the floors, as if he didn't know where to go. He looked almost panicked.

"Hey, you Blue, what are you doing here?" he asked with the most annoying voice imaginable.

"I, uhm, I'm on my way to the cafeteria," he stammered a bit. That was pretty normal, wasn't it?

"Dude, haven't you seen downstairs?" he asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Aoba was about to say no, when the red-haired kid ran off, probably back to the homosexual floor.

Now when Aoba thought about it, it _was_ kind of odd that he hadn't really seen anybody else on his way. He was starting to think that he'd gotten himself lost in the big château, until he turned the corner that led to the beautiful main hall where…

He stopped himself. "What is..?"

The first thing Aoba noticed was the smell: it smelled as if a million fireworks had gone off right in the middle of the hall. And it looked that way too.

Right in front of the door was a huge crater that took up almost half of the space in the room. It was about 4 feet deep and twice the size across. The lovely marble floor had been blown away, and was now either burnt off or scattered around the room. It was a wild sight.

Probably all the attendants to the institution were now gathered around the big hole to get a closer look. They blocked the way to the cafeteria, so Aoba couldn't even just keep going. How could this have happened?

"If I may have your attention, everybody," a familiar voice said, and everybody's eyes directed themselves towards Toue who stood on the top of the stairs. His green plaid suit was fit perfectly onto his broad shoulders, but his facial expression looked like he hadn't slept at all. Which he probably hadn't.

"Please, everybody remain calm. As you all can see right now, there is a small crater in our lovely marble floor," The crowd nodded.

"Well, I can assure you that everything is in perfect order. It was merely a test of the floor's durability. If it hasn't been for the modified marble, the crater would have been much bigger. Sorry for the unannounced disruption. Now, please continue your day without worries," Toue bowed slightly and walked back to his office without a word.

The background noise of people talking and walking now slowly came back, and little by little people ignored the crater and went around it to get to the cafeteria. Aoba sighed, not really able to comprehend the last few minutes.

"Aoba!" He turned around and saw Ren wave at him. He was relieved to find someone he knew to talk about it.

"What's with that crater?" Aoba asked. Ren took another look at it.

"Well, Toue said that it only was a test, but that would probably be announced at first, not to mention that it wouldn't be without warning and in the middle of the night,"

"You're right. It _is_ pretty suspicious…" Aoba scratched his chin trying to remember something, but he was too hungry to think clearly.

"Why don't we go find the others so we can eat together?" Ren asked, and Aoba nodded. They walked together in a big circle around the crater.

* * *

"Man, that surely didn't happen last year," Koujaku stated. "But I did have a feeling that it would be different this year,"

"How so?" asked Ren before taking another bite of his eggs with beans.

"Well, Aoba is here too this year, which is great," he pointed in Aoba's direction, and he nodded in return.

"But also because Toue increased the price of the stay considerably in the last minute, which is odd. Why would he suddenly need the extra cash?"

Aoba leaned back. He didn't have to pay a single coin to stay here, but was invited personally. For advertisement. Not that he complained about it, but it seemed like there were a lot of other people who maybe would have gotten more from it than himself. So he wondered why exactly _he_ was chosen for this.

"Maybe he needed to hire some hot new teachers or extras we can "practice" on," Sly added, grinning. The rest of the table shook their heads and let Sly finish his jokes.

"Maybe he needed a fixer-upper on his office. Or his wife… hahaha!"

When he was done, his natural face returned, and he got a more serious expression.

"But really, he said he needed to check if the floors were secure. Why would they need to be? This is just a school for dating for Christ's sake," he pondered.

"Well, you right about something," said Aoba. "He's up to something.

After eating the meal, their ways parted: Koujaku went with the people from the Hetero route, Ren with the Homo route, Sly with the A-route, and Aoba was left to go with the Bi route. He checked his coil one more time, assuring himself of where to go to form here.

* * *

"Ah, here it is," Aoba stood outside the door to the classroom. He didn't see many others, but he was early, so it wasn't that unusual. He opened the door slowly, and inside was a circle of chairs, a blackboard, a projector and some cushions in the corner. In the chairs sat a few people already, two pretty girls chatting with each other, and a guy with short blonde hair. By the blackboard stood a mid-aged woman who looked like your average art teacher.

"Ah, welcome," she turned around and took a good look at him through her glasses. "You must be Aoba-san," she concluded.

"Yes, I am. How did you know?" he asked, honestly curious as to if he already had rumors about him.

"Toue-san told me about you, and I also got a list of names with matching faces," she explained like it was obvious.

"I see," answered Aoba hesitantly, mostly to be nice. Although he didn't remember having any photos of him taken. He took a seat next to the single guy in the room. As he did, a few other people entered the room, and after being greeted they sat down, and the empty seats were slowly filled out.

"Hey, you," Aoba felt an elbow to his side, and turned to his right. The guy sat and tried to catch his attention. With a smirk he opened his mouth and spoke:

"You're on the right route. It'd be a shame if only one gender group got to fight over you," His voice came out sweet as honey, and Aoba almost thought he saw him lick his lips.

"I, uhm, thanks..?" He was far from sure how to answer, and just tried facing the other way. He could still feel the guy's eyes on him, weighing him from top to toe with his mere sight, but he didn't want to think about it. He'd hopefully stop soon enough.

"Good mooooooorning, everybody!" a joyful voice sang through the room at 9:55. It was awfully familiar, where'd heard it before? Eh-?!

"Oh, Master!" the voice called out again, and Aoba now knew who it was. It was that guy with the gasmask.

"Hi again, uhm…?"

"It's Clear,"

"Then hi, Clear," Aoba greeted properly. Clear clapped his hands happily together.

"I'm so glad that we're on the same route, Master! Then we can spend a lot of time together, isn't that great?"

"I guess, but, uhm…" This was something he'd wondered for a while now. "Why do you keep calling me Master?"

"Why I keep calling you Master?" Aoba nodded.

"Because Master is Master, that's why!" He rejoiced, but Aoba honestly didn't know what to answer at this point.

"So, let's begin!" the educator then said, and Clear took the first empty seat, a few ones from Aoba, and sat down. The teacher sat down on the last empty seat when everyone was there.

"My name is Laura, and I run this class, which is called "meeting and greeting". Here you'll learn how to introduce yourselves in an open way that makes you seem more attractive to other people, even to those whom you don't plan to have a sexual relation with," Aoba pricked up his ears.

"When you're done here, you'll be socially educated, and you won't have to worry about being awkward anymore," Aoba thought that actually sounded interesting. He hadn't been able to get a date for a long time, and maybe that was the problem. The next 30 minutes was spent on Laura speaking about the other things about the course.

"I will be teaching you a number of different techniques that you can practice," and so on.

"But now, I'd like for you all to know each other a little better, since we're going to be spending a lot of time with each other on a more intimate level," she began. She almost made it sound like they were going to be together forever, so dramatic.

She handed a small blue ball to a random person in the circle, and made them introduce themselves. Their name, age, occupation, and why they'd chosen to come to The Intimacy Institution, and why they chose the bisexual route. The first couple of people said things like "I wanted to try something new" or "I had nothing else to do". Then it came to Clear.

"Oh, I stay here all the time. But this time Master showed up, and it made everything so much better!" he rejoiced in his excited way. Honestly, where did he get his energy from? Aoba's cheeks flushed a deep red when everyone's eyes went to him.

A few more people were in between Clear and then the guy next to Aoba. He juggled the ball around for a second before talking.

"I'm Ryuuhou, I'm 29 years old and I'm a tattoo artist," he said confidently. Laura smiled, apparently glad that he wasn't a nervous type. "Tell us, Ryuuhou-san, why have you chosen to come here?" He smirked.

"Well, it's obviously not because I lacked human skills," he took a moment to giggle lowly. "I've come partly on work affairs, and also because you might need someone like me in this place," The rest of the class was silent. He spoke as if he owned the place.

"I chose the bi-route because, well," Aoba jumped when he felt a hand on his thigh, and began to sweat. "All kinds of company are fine to me," he finished, his voice laced with a weird lust. Some of the people in the circle looked like they were about to faint when they saw how unexpectedly sexy he was. One girl even had a nosebleed. Aoba couldn't believe it.

"Well, I think it's my turn," he interrupted, and Ryuuhou handed him the ball and took his hand off his thigh. _Phew_.

"Well then, hello. I'm Aoba Seragaki, I'm 23 years old, and I normally work in a junk shop called Heibon. I was invited here, so that's really the reason why I'm here in the first place," he paused for a moment to look at the others who looked at him. Then it hit him. They were all pretty attractive. Not just to him, but they were generally handsome.

"Keep going!" Laura urged him on, and he was snapped out of his thoughts. "Why did you choose this route?"

"Oh right, uhm…" he thought about it for a moment. He couldn't just tell him that he was there on accident, could he? That it wasn't his decision to be on the bi-route, but simply because his preferred route was full, so he had to switch. No, he needed to make something up. After all, it wasn't like he'd have to do something he didn't want to. Such as kissing a stranger…

"I, uhm, am new to the bisexual community, and I figured that it'd be best to join a route where I can learn to be myself," _That's it, they'll buy that_, he thought. "But actually… I'm not really sure,"

"Oh, I see, Aoba-san! Then let me help you," Laura began and rose from her seat. Aoba thought she was going to get something in her desk by the black board, but instead she picks two random people from the circle out, a man and a woman. She led them to Aoba.

"Now, kiss him," she said and smiled.

"EH-?!" Aoba jumped again and felt his heart race. No way, no way…

The girl, a pretty, tall blonde with green eyes, bend down to his face and kissed him gently. He struggled not to move away, but just let it happen. _I mean, the teacher knows best… right? _It felt nice and soft, but Aoba wasn't sure if it was because his heart almost leapt out of his chest, or because it was his first kiss in months.

Next was the man, half long dark hair that hung around his shoulders. He was introduced as one of the first, and his name was Kou. He bowed down to Aoba without hesitation and kissed his lips softly and warmly. Aoba felt like all the air in his lungs sept out, but without noticing he pursed his lips ever so slightly and met the kiss.

"Nice," Kou said when he pulled away. It didn't look like he was flirting with him, not like Ryuuhou did, but more like he wanted to boost his self-esteem. Seemed like a weird way to do it, though.

The two went back to their seats and the rest of the crowd seemed unsure whether to clap or not. _Why would you even clap..?!_

Aoba was almost in shock. Did that just really happen? Laura now stared at him, eagerly waiting for a response.

"Well, I…" Aoba was seriously at a loss for words this time.

"Hey, leave Master alone! He'll decide for himself, won't you, Master?" Clear had hopped right up from his seat and now stood between Laura and Aoba. She apologized quickly and sat back down, with no apparent change in her mood. All Aoba could do was send Clear a look with a mix of guilt and gratitude. Clear smiled back and sat down again, glad to be able to help.

The rest of the names in the circle were introduced, and the last 15 minutes went with small talking to get to know each other better (even though Aoba would say he knew more than 2 now very personally). He even got to talk with Kou and the girl, who apologized too, but Aoba, who now could speak again, said it was fine now. After all it _was_ his first kisses in months, so that one of them came from another guy now didn't matter that much. Soon after, the lunch bell rang.

* * *

"She WHAT?!"

"That's right. She made two strangers go up and kiss me so I could 'come to terms with my sexuality'," Aoba replied to Koujaku at lunch. Ren's mouth stood wide open, but Sly couldn't stop laughing.

"That is so great, haha!" Sly struggled to breathe, but Koujaku was starting to get angry.

"Why do you think that's so funny? Aoba's not gay, try having a dude come up to you and just kiss you right then and there?!"

"Hehe, I'm pan, so I don't care,"

"You..!" Koujaku was getting pissed off, Sly kept laughing, and Aoba and Ren exchanged looks. _Those two._

"Excuse me, Master?" Aoba heard that familiar voice, and turned around to see Clear standing on the other side of the table with a tray of food. He looked a little down compared to his usual energetic self.

"Hey Clear," Aoba wanted to be nice to him. After all, he did save him from that awkward situation back there. "Want to sit with us?"

"I'd love to!" His face lit back up, and he sat down next to Ren. "I'm Clear, nice to meet you~," The others introduced themselves, and no one else than Koujaku seemed bothered. Aoba could almost tell that he was thinking "that gasmask guy…".

Clear turned out to be good company at the table, always smiling and lighting up the mood with a funny story. Eventually even Koujaku liked having him around. Aoba thought he would take this opportunity to thank him for helping him earlier.

"You're welcome, Master. She did that last year too, and I thought I'd help you since you looked so lost," Aoba almost regretted bringing the subject back up, because he still was pretty embarrassed, but the others took it well. Clear told them a bit more about the teacher, that she wasn't all that bad, but actually was really good at her job.

They all finished eating and went to part ways again. Clear and Aoba decided to go together to the next class, which looked to be something about clothes.

* * *

"HellooOOOoo, everyone!" The teacher greeted the crowd with a song as he hopped halfway across the room in an elegant pirouette. Everyone stood speechless as he landed on one foot and bowed.

"My name is Wilson and I'll be your fashion teacher, isn't that just exciting?" he asked enthusiastically. The only person to answer was Clear.

"Yes!" he shouted. Aoba figured that being here for a long time, he knew how to handle this teacher, or whatever the hell he was. He couldn't help but wonder how he had the money to be here all the time, and why…

"So now, sit down everyone, sit down. Children of the Earth, I am going to teach you a little about dressing for success!" Aoba almost cringed at how flamboyant he was. Not that he had anything against him, at least he didn't make students kiss each other, but it was kind of hard to understand him the way he lisped.

He started the class by talking about what he was wearing himself, a shiny blue vest and black sweatpants. He told them that that was something he felt comfortable in, and that it also expressed who he was. _No doubt about that_. Then they took a round of what the crowd would normally wear, and they made a list of favorite clothing accessories. At 3 PM they were allowed to go for the day.

"Now what do we do?" Aoba asked Clear as they were leaving the classroom.

"Now we can just do what we want to until tomorrow. Most people hang in the entertainment rooms,"

"Then let's go there," Aoba followed Clear, who obviously knew more about the place than himself. They were going to meet up with Ren, Sly and Koujaku there, and Aoba just prayed that they wouldn't run into Ryuuhou…

* * *

_How do you feel about Ryuuhou being a sex god? I figured that it fit him well, also because, well, I like him and wanted him to have a part in the story. I also had a lot of trouble figuring some of the classes out, but they turned out mostly okay. Besides, that's not the important part..._  
_So yes, I love to hear from you guys, so please tell me what you think! I gladly take suggestions, so don't be shy. Until next time~_


	6. Chapter 6

**The Intimacy Institution**

* * *

_Could it be that I managed to update again within a month? Well, one day too late, but still. The next couple of chapters probably aren't going to be as detailed in every single action, since I've been 6 chapters to do 2-3 days so far, so yeah. I'd like to give a shout out to the Fanfiction user, Immme, because they were so nice and awesome to review, and that made me kick start and do some writing. Please enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 6

Table tennis, giant flat screen TVs with tons of different consoles, and a sauna in the other room. That was only the first couple of things Aoba noticed when he stepped into the big "play room" in the institution. A nice music played in the background and the walls were filled with decorative paintings of nature and neutral architecture, and it smelt fresh. Was he in heaven?

"So, what do you think, Aoba-san?" Clear asked the blown-away man next to him who almost drooled from the sight.

"It's insane, is all this for us?"

"Yep, every single thing is free as long as you go here," It was almost too good to be true.

"Aoba! Over here!" Ren called from the round bar in the middle of the room which Aoba hadn't even noticed until now. He and Clear walked over where their friends already sat, but Koujaku was the only one with a drink.

"Can you believe this place? It's incredible!" Aoba was still in a mild state of shock over the room, but Koujaku leaned back while chuckling.

"It's so funny to see your reaction. I was here last year, so it doesn't come as a surprise to me at all," he spoke confidently. _Oh yeah, that's right_, Aoba thought.

"So, what else is there here?" Sly asked, and Clear looked more than happy to respond.

"TVs, fitness rooms, a swimming pool, a pillow room…"

"There is a _pillow room_?!" the three newbies asked in unison.

"Exactly! Filled with pillows, mattresses, and blankets. It's so fun to go in there to build pillow forts!" Clear answered in a happy tone, even though his facial expression still wasn't readable through the gasmask he wore. He continued with everyone's attention on him.

"Let's see… There's a cinema too, a disco, a library, a computer room, and last, but not least, a greenhouse!" _This place is crazy, how the hell does Toue get the money for this..?_

"What about snacks? I'm hungry," Sly blurted out suddenly.

"The bar serves snacks and appetizers around the clock, so just order what you like," Clear answered friendly. Sly then got up and went around the bar to get to the bartender on the other side.

"Well, we have lots of time until dinner, so what do you wanna do first?" Ren asked. Aoba thought for a while: there was so much to do, so it was almost impossible to choose.

"How about we go for a swim? It's been a long time since I swam here," Koujaku suggested, and since Aoba had no other ideas, he and the others went with it. They waited for Koujaku to finish his drink and for Sly to eat his snacks in shape of small slices of melon, and then they went through the door to the swimming pool.

* * *

The changing room itself was amazing, with pearls and marble in the walls and a mosaic of a dolphin in the floor. Aoba was getting more and more baffled and almost lost words. That tended to happen a lot in this place now that he thought about it.

Aoba suddenly remembered that he hadn't brought any swim shorts to the place.

"Guys, I can't join you, I don't have any swimwear with me," he said sadly. He would've loved to swim around, since he hadn't swum in ages either. Koujaku, who was already taking off his shirt, grinned and went to a rack on the wall. Aoba followed with his eyes, and saw that they all were swimwear in all shapes and sizes.

"Just pick one, and throw it in the laundry room when you're done," Koujaku said like it was the most obvious thing, and Aoba nodded and found a blue pair. He took off his shirt, his pants, but then got a weird feeling. He turned around.

"Eh..? Hey, stop staring at me, you guys," Sly, Ren, Koujaku and Clear were all looking at him with the same look in their eyes, and even though they all were guys, and it probably didn't mean anything, Aoba still blushed. He kept his back towards the others when he slid off his boxers as well, and…

"**OW**!" He felt a sharp pain on his bottom, and he quickly spun around to see what it was. Sly was laughing his butt off as he stood next to Aoba with his hand raised. Did he just-?

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself, you have a really great ass, hahaha!"

"What?" Aoba looked at the others, who just kind of looked away. What even...?

"You're asexual anyways, how would _you_ be able to recognize a great ass?" Koujaku said, still looking away. He sounded very annoyed.

"First of all I'm still _p-a-n_, tattoo boy, and second of all I'm also a _person_, I know a good butt when I see one," he said and smirked in the weirdest way. Aoba facepalmed internally, and it looked like Ren did too, just externally. Aoba decided to grab his stuff, and went to the bathroom to change instead. _Jeez, you guys_.

* * *

"_Whooooooaaaaaaa!_" was the only word they could all agree on as the five all stood and tried to process what they were seeing: a huge area with multiple pools of unimaginable sizes, one with extra depth for springboards, and hot tubs. Seriously, what did this place lack?

"No wonder Toue would need so much money, this place must cost a fortune to run," Ren pondered, and Aoba had to agree. All of this luxury was far from necessary, so why?

"GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOO!" yelled Sly, and before the others could even think, he sprinted towards the edge of a huge pool, and dove head first into it. The splash was little, a perfect jump. But when he got his head above the water again, he started to splash the water on his friends.

"Come on, guys, the water is great!" Koujaku and Clear wasted no time, and hopped right into the water. Ren hesitated, though.

"Ren? Are you okay?" Aoba asked.

"I'm just afraid that my heart is too weak. What if it's too much and I'll get sick again?" He looked down to the floor. He sounded very worried. He probably should be, after all, since he had a weak heart, and simply running earlier had made him very exhausted. To be honest, Aoba hadn't really thought about it. But Ren should have a good time too.

"I'll swim with you then. If you feel sick, just tell me, and I'll help you back to your room, okay?" Aoba grabbed his one shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. Ren raised his face up again, so his eyes could meet Aoba's. His eyes widened as if he just thought of something. Then they became more relaxed, and he smiled at Aoba, whose face became light pink. _Why am I blushing now? He's just friend_.

Instead of jumping right into the water like Clear, Koujaku and Sly had done, Ren and Aoba took the stairs, with only a few steps into the water. Then they held onto the edge of the pool, and walked around in the low water. Ren didn't seem to be having trouble, and Aoba thought it was nice too. Until he was hit in the head with a ball.

"Hey! Sly, not you again!" Aoba yelled, but when he turned around towards Sly, he simply shrugged and pointed at Koujaku, who disappeared under the water. Where did he go?

"WH-?! HEY!" Aoba almost fell backwards into the water, when he felt something at his legs in the water, and then Koujaku popped out of the water between his thighs, lifting him up. The idea was apparently to balance Aoba on his shoulders, but he had miscalculated something, and ended up with Aoba sitting the other way around, his groin pressed into Koujaku's face.

"EH?! KOUJAKU!" Aoba pushed himself away from Koujaku's head, and lost his balance. He was going to fall backwards right into the water, if it wasn't because…

"I've got you, Master!" Clear caught him in midair, and held him bridal style right above the water. Aoba looked up at Clear, what almost gave him a small shock, since he was still wearing the gasmask, and his face was very close. In the distance was Sly laughing so hard he almost choked, and Koujaku's face turned red, and he hid his face in his hands. _Goddamnit_.

* * *

After an hour or two of swimming (Aoba had lost track) they went back to the changing room. After the incident before, they were all a bit awkward, and swimming silently seemed better. Ren didn't get sick, thank God, but Sly however was so exhausted from laughing that he had to be carried to the changing room in the end.

Being back in the changing room, Aoba had retrieved to the bathroom to change. Not that he thought that they'd be so goddamn embarrassing again, but he didn't want to take the chance. He thought about how Koujaku had been super embarrassed earlier, when he… _Ugh, why did have to happen? It was so painfully awkward! And even on my best friend…_ He also thought about how Clear had caught him immediately, and then stared at him the whole time. Was he in falling in love with him? He was on the bi route after all, so he might have, but maybe Aoba was just thinking too much of himself.

Then he thought of Ren. How worried he'd been that he couldn't join his friends because of his heart. Now when Aoba thought about it, having a sick heart didn't fit him at all. He deserved to be healthy and live like everyone else. Besides, it didn't feel like he was sick, because his heart was so pure, so strong. But it only showed on the inside, and not physically, sadly. Aoba just hoped that he'd get better someday.

When he was done dressing himself, he opened the door and stepped outside of the bathroom. The others were almost done dressing themselves, except for Ren, who was putting on his underwear after putting the towel away. Aoba got a small peak of him completely naked: he was generally pale, not too muscular, but still quite… _Whoa, I'm gonna think of something else now..!_

When all were done getting dressed, they left the changing room. It was getting late, and time for dinner. They all went there together like always and thankfully found a table where they all could sit.

The served food consisted of fried shrimps, a vegetable soup, and noodles. It tasted wonderfully, and they all went multiple times, also because they were hungry from swimming.

They mostly sat in silence, unless someone brought a small subject up, that was discussed briefly, and then dropped. Aoba noticed that Koujaku was particularly silent, and he asked what was wrong. After a small pause, he finally said:

"I'm sorry for that awkward scene before, Aoba. Really sorry! I didn't mean to- you know…" _Oh, that's what he's upset about_.

"Hey, it's okay, Koujaku. I know it wasn't on purpose, so I'm not mad or anything," Aoba said reassuring, and Koujaku let out a sigh of relief. While they were at it, Sly also apologized for slapping his butt, Clear apologized for staring, but Aoba shrugged it off, and said that it was alright. They were able to continue their food undisturbed, and soon talked like normally.

* * *

The five friends decided to split up, since they all had to get up early the next day. Aoba was on his way to his room, when he suddenly remembered something important: he'd forgotten his lend swimwear in the changing room. The realization hit him hard, and he almost panicked. What if the room was closed now? Not that it was that important; he could always get it tomorrow, but he'd promised to take care of it.

He turned around immediately, and ran towards the entertainment rooms. The door was still open, and there was light inside, but the room was almost empty, except for a few people watching TV in the corner. Aoba snuck past the circular bar in the middle of the room where they sat earlier, and went through the door to the men's changing room.

He'd expected that the room was empty as well, but it… wasn't…

"Oh sorry, I didn't want to disturb, I'll just b…" Aoba tried excusing himself, but he found that the blond man in the room didn't really listen. He stood in the middle of the room with nothing but a towel covering his body from the waist and down. He stood with his back against Aoba, and he wasn't sure if he was just hallucinating, or if he saw something weird on the man's back..? He didn't want to be caught staring, so he just found the swimwear, and picked it up.

Suddenly the man turned around and faced Aoba, whose blood froze right in his veins.

"Oi. You came back just for that?" He asked with a deep voice, and Aoba then recognized him.

"Hey, you're the guy I bumped into the other day, aren't you?" He didn't answer, but just scanned Aoba from top to toe with his eyes.

"It _is_ you! I'm still very sorry, it must've hurt," Aoba apologized, but only received a shrug from the blond guy.

"It's whatever,"

"It's definitely not! I rammed right into you, and you didn't even fl…" Aoba was interrupted in midsentence, because the stranger suddenly came really close. Like _really _close.

"From your silhouette, you look like you have a great body," Aoba froze in his place. Again. "But I could be wrong,"

"What are you talking about..?" Aoba's pulse rose, and his vision was suddenly blocked too. He felt something on his lips. Not again?!

"Mgn..!" He wanted to get away from the uninvited kiss, but he still couldn't move much. _Why is this happening?_

He finally managed to push the stranger off with a weak blow, and then panted hard. He wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't been able to breathe properly, or if it was… something else?

"W-what the hell?! What on Earth was that?!" Was the only thing he could say at the moment.

"It was a kiss? I just kissed you," he said with a normal tone, and Aoba was losing his mind.

"But why?! I don't even know your name!"

"It's Noiz,"

"Noiz…" He repeated the name, distracted for a short moment, but then asked him again: "Why did you kiss me all of a sudden?! It's weird!"

"I'm from the free route, and our teacher told us to try and discover our sexuality. And I don't think it's weird," he explained. The "free route"? Ohh, he probably meant the four people without a route, who stay there until they've found one they'd like to join. But then why would he…

"I-I think I'm gonna go now," Aoba said slowly, afraid that the guy, Noiz, might attack if he made any sudden movements. But Noiz just turned around and walked into the shower. Aoba heard the water run, and the unconsciously squeezing the swimwear in his hands. His first impulse was to go and sneak on the guy in the shower, but WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH HIM?! He hurried out of the room, and out of the entertainment area.

* * *

He had to ask around for the way to the laundry room, but he eventually found it in the other end of the institution. It was pretty obvious, really, because a lot of signs and pictograms pointed the direction, but Aoba was too distracted to think straight. The whole day had been so… weird. Kissing people he didn't know, getting groped in several places, and being stared at. Technically it was sexual harassment, although Aoba hadn't really put much thought into that.

The laundry room was big, not to mention empty, and had at least 20 washing machines and 15 dryers. This place…

He found a janitor, who was sweeping the floors, and asked him how to set the washing machines. He was very nice, Haga-san was he called, and he also told Aoba that he'd put it away when it was done. Aoba thanked him, and set the used swimwear to be washed.

He was about to leave the room, when he heard footsteps down the hall. Who could be around at this time, other than himself of course? He was exiting through the door when…

"Oh? Aoba-san, what a lovely surprise," a tall blond man said. He wore all red and green glasses. And there was something next to him in red too, but he was taller and wider than the first guy. Red… they must be from the asexual route. "Hey, Aoba~" said the other.

"Do I know you two? How can you know my name?" He was seriously curious. Is it the same way that his teacher earlier, Laura, had learned his name?

"No, Aoba-san, you don't know us, but we know you," the guy with the glasses explained. They both stepped closer to Aoba, and smiled widely.

"We're very interested in making business with you, Aoba-san, so would you like to talk some with us?" they kept asking. Aoba was beginning to feel slightly intimidated, since the two big guys stood right up in Aoba's face.

"I'm sorry, I can't, it's really late, and I should be sleeping now," Aoba excused himself, and the two moved out of his way.

"Sure, but if you change your mind, you know where to find us," the taller one said, and pointed at their red clothes. _Asexual route, got it._ Aoba nodded and walked past them. When he was a bit away from the washing room, he started running. _Then I can stay the hell away from you two_.

* * *

He'd almost reached his room, when he ran into Ren. He was on the way in the same direction as Aoba, so he called out to him.

"Oh, Aoba, I was just on my way to see you," he said and smiled lightly. On his way to see Aoba? Why?

"Sure, what is it?" Aoba said, trying to catch his breath from running up all the stairs. Losing his breath was almost common in this place now.

"Well, I wanted to thank you for helping me swim today. It'd been so long since I last swam, and thanks to you, I was able to again. Thank you so much, Aoba," He bowed slightly. It was totally unnecessary, but if it was a big deal to Ren, it was okay.

"It's alright, anyt…"

"And also," Ren interrupted, and then looked up in a very serious way. "Not only Clear is at fault for this; I think I also stared some at you today, accidently of course. I'm sorry," He looked like a kicked puppy, and Aoba felt very bad. He had _also_ done that…

"It's okay…" Ren interrupted again, but not like before. He got down on his knees, and bowed deeply.

"No, it was wrong of me, so I'd understand if you don't want to be friends with me anymore," He sounded really sorry, and Aoba felt extremely bad now. He pulled him up to his feet again, and made him look into his eyes.

"It's really alright, and I would never kick you as my friend. I mean, Clear admitted it too, and I'm still friends with him, right?" Ren nodded. "And also…"

"What is it?"

"I _might_ have stared at you too at some point… accidently," Aoba said and looked away. It was really too embarrassing to say. When he looked up again, Ren looked understandingly at him.

"That's okay. Then we're equals," he said and smiled sweetly, and Aoba nodded. It was getting really hot in there, or was it just him? He had to get away, and fast.

"I-I'll go inside and sleep now… Goodnight," Aoba said. Ren wished him a goodnight as well, and retreated to his own floor. Aoba exhaled, and then sprinted towards his own room, and locked the door behind him.

He checked the time on his coil, and it was almost 12 at night. He ripped off his clothes and put on a T-shirt and left his boxers on. Then he got into bed, and closed his eyes. But he couldn't seem to fall asleep, because just as he thought: _I can't get Ren out of my head_.

He wondered if it was because he'd touched him in some way, or if he had just made some extraordinary impression on him today, but he couldn't get him out of his head. It couldn't possibly be because he'd been able to see his naked chest while they were swimming, or that he got a peak of Ren's…

Aoba couldn't stand it any longer, and stuck a hand down into his underwear. He couldn't believe that he'd do this, that he'd resort to this in this situation, but he couldn't help it anymore. It was hot as he gripped it; he hadn't done this in a long time. _Too long_, he thought.

He tried to avoid the thought at first, to think of something else, a girl maybe. But all he could really think about was Ren, how he'd looked with water dripping down his chest, how he smiled at him earlier, Ren, Ren, _Ren_.

He felt everything melt inside of him, and his hand slowed. He hadn't noticed how hard he'd been panting, and how much time had gone by. He suddenly felt too tired to care about it all anymore, and fell asleep right then and there.

* * *

_So Koujaku accidently being a pervert, Noiz kissing Aoba,Virus and Trip coming to say "Wassup?", and now nfsw-ish themes? Oh nuuuuuuu, but oh yes. Aoba is one filthy son of a twink, but no homo, guys, no homo. That was chapter 6 then, I hope you liked it, and if you did, then please review! Or review if you didn't like it, that kinda helps me get better and write cooler stuff for you guys. There will come more action in the future chapters, I promise, but perhaps also some boyfriend action? Stay tuned~_


	7. Chapter 7

**The Intimacy Institution**

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_Before you say anything... Yes, I know I'm slow. However comma, I managed to do 200 more words, so yay. So sorry for not updating for long, I hope some have still stuck around..! Enjoy._

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Chapter 7

Aoba sat on the side of his bed and looked down at his feet. He'd woken up an hour before his alarm went off, but he couldn't get further than the edge of the bed. His body felt so heavy, so sluggish. His mind was a blur, part of the reason he didn't feel like he could move from the bed. He couldn't think a single thought, well one: _I am the worst_.

He got his brain up and working, and so he rose from the bed. He wobbled slightly on his feet, a bit dizzy from standing too fast, but he managed. _Uhm… shower_. He turned to the door to the bathroom, and swung the door open while rubbing his eyes.

He threw his underwear in a basket, promising himself that he'd scrub it some before taking it down to the washing room. He turned on the water in the shower stall, and didn't have to wait for long before a nice soft stream of temperate water fell from the giant shower head. He stretched his tired body a bit before entering. He let the water rain over him for a long time before actually beginning to wash himself. He had too many things to consider and think about:

He'd… pleasured himself yesterday night. That fact alone wasn't bad, since this place probably was here for the same, but the image that'd caused him to lose control was the thing that bothered him: Ren. Ren, a friend, a male friend, had sent him over the edge, had given him such a wrong feeling inside that felt so good. Why was he even thinking these things? Ren was a dear friend, not to mention a guy like himself, so it was ridiculous to even consider.

But… since he'd felt so good in the night with the visual of Ren, then would be become all flustered and awkward around the real Ren when he saw him today? He didn't want that, it would completely blow off their friendship, and Ren was nice to be around. As an experiment he closed his eyes under the rain of hot water, and imagined Ren in front of him…

Nothing. Nothing at all. His heart didn't start racing like it'd done yesterday, he didn't blush, and he _definitely_ didn't feel any arousal. He exhaled dramatically. So it was just a one-time thing, huh? He was so relieved. Now he didn't have to face Ren fearing he might become hard in the middle of breakfast. With this eased thought he grabbed some soap and began washing himself, only focusing on how nice the shampoo smelt.

* * *

After drying off and getting dressed he sat back on his bed and checked his coil: there was still 30 minutes before he had to go to breakfast. He sighed and flopped backwards into his bed and closed his eyes. He was tired, because he'd gone to bed too late last night and had woken up too early. _If I hadn't… then I would have had more sleep_.

Suddenly his coil rang, and Aoba lifted his head from the soft sheets. He looked at his coil and it was a call from Ren. He smiled, but then stopped himself. _If he calls at this hour, something is probably wrong_. He he held his breath as he pressed the answer button.

"Aoba? Oh thank god," Ren's face popped up on the hologram screen, and even though the background was dark, Aoba could see Ren's morning hair and tired eyes clearly.

"What's wrong? Is everything okay?" Aoba asked, wondering what possibly could be wrong for Ren to call him all of a sudden.

"Sorry I'm calling at this time, we're not supposed to meet until later, but I didn't know who else to call…"_It's so Ren to start apologizing…_ Aoba thought to himself, but thought it might be best to calm his friend first.

"Hey Ren, it's alright, just tell me what's wrong, "

"Right… It's Sly, he called me and said he was ill, but when I went to check on him he was in extreme pain, and I don't know what to do…" In the background you could hear Sly's muffled cries of pain, because he was trying to keep his voice down.

"I'm coming right away, Ren, just hang on," Aoba ended the call and ran towards his bag, where his own headache medicine was stored. His grandmother, Tae, had given him quite a few for his stay, in case he should get his headaches again, but so far he hadn't felt anything. Now, Sly needed them more than he did. He put them into his pocket and sprinted out of the door, not bothering if it shut close or not.

* * *

The asexual route was in the other end of the institution, but if he ran he could make it in a few minutes. Running in the halls was probably forbidden, but right now it was more important that Sly got help. Besides, no one was in the halls at this time anyways, so it couldn't harm anybody.

He ran past the grand entry hall, where the big crater was being covered by a big plastic cover. In the corner of his eye he could see man in full body suits pulling plastic over the hole to hide it. _I guess it's not so appealing having a huge crater in the floor, huh._ He'd unconsciously stopped in his tracks, because he thought he'd seen… Toue? Yeah, it was him. He looked stressed and angry, a little sleep deprived too. Like the day before, really. He wondered if he should say something, but he felt the glass of pills in his pocket, and ran towards Sly's room instead.

He reached it faster than he'd thought, and tried to catch his breath while waiting for Ren to come and open the door.

The doorknob turned. "Aoba, thank goodness!" Ren's face had a very serious look, and his voice was full of worry. Aoba felt so sorry for him. Ren pulled him inside, and not far into the room could you hear Sly's groans of pain while he lied in a fetal position on the bed.

"Sly? It's me, Aoba," he said, approaching the bed cautiously while Ren closed the door behind them. "I came as fast as I could. I brought medicine too," He pulled the container out of his pocket and shook it so you could hear the pills rattle.

Sly looked up and removed his hands from his head. When he saw the medicine relief washed over his face, and he sat up. Ren went to get water, and Aoba opened the lid of the glass and handed him a couple of pills. He swallowed them in one go, and then calmed down, leaning backwards into the bed.

"Thanks," he mumbled, suddenly very tired. He'd probably been up all night with this, and now he just wanted to rest while the pills did their job. Aoba smiled and rubbed his friend's arm, then turned around to Ren. He looked like he'd just had a great weight lifted off his shoulders.

"Yeah, thanks," Ren said thankfully. He was completely relaxed now, Aoba noticed.

"Will he be okay?" Aoba asked. He obviously wasn't going out for the next time being.

"Yes, it just happens sometimes, although he hasn't had it in a long time. He just has to recover, and he might join us for dinner," Ren put his usual smile back on with a tint of worry in his eyes, and that's when Aoba noticed something else about Ren: he always kept eye-contact when he talked to him.

"That's good then. I think it's about time to go to the cafeteria, are you coming too?" Aoba asked, partly to change the subject, but also to make Ren think of something else. _This must be hard on him…_ Ren nodded and looked thankful to be able to get a break from the morning's drama. They went out of the door together after making sure that Sly would be alright on his own.

* * *

"Sly what?" Koujaku burst out at the morning table. The whole gang was together again, but it was of course quickly noticed that Sly wasn't present. Ren and Aoba, who'd been a little late, had had to explain why their 5th friend was missing.

"He has a horrible headache and was up all night, so he's gonna call in sick for the day," Ren explained, and Clear hunched his shoulders in worry.

"Is he going to be alright?" he asked anxiously. Aoba nodded quickly. "Of course he is. He's just a bit ill right now. He'll be okay in no time, and he might join us tonight for dinner," Aoba assured, and Clear straightened himself up and sighed. "I'm glad!"

Even without Sly it was no problem to get into their now usual rhythm; eating together, and then splitting up for their individual classes. The small group of friends found that sticking together was much nicer than being alone and on their own in a huge place like the Intimacy Institution.

* * *

As Aoba and Red had predicted, Sly returned from his room by dinnertime, and they all ate together like normally. "Skipped classes, huh? You troublemaker!" they teased, and Sly teased back with his usual sneaky comments. Aoba's day had consisted of another class with Wilson, where they'd talked about how to dress for a successful date, and they'd been paired up to find nice outfits on the internet. Then after lunch they'd met a new teacher, Mark, in a class for body language. He'd referred a lot to Clear, who never took off his gas mask, and Clear was willing to tell all he knew about communication without facial expressions. He'd impressed even Aoba with what he knew. He was honestly just glad that he didn't get Laura that day…

* * *

Days went by, weeks, and life went on as usual; Aoba followed his classes closely, especially after he met his new favorite teacher, Naomi, who taught the intimacy class. She didn't make him kiss other people out of the blue, thank god, but helped him relax in new situations, such as when they had to practice hugging with both genders. He'd met a few other teachers, such as Fukawa of their "love through history" classes, and Mei of the sexual education class. Most made him feel very welcome and secure.

After the classes he would meet up with the others; Koujaku, Clear, Sly, and Ren. They all hung out in the entertainment room or in Koujaku's room after the classes, and became closer and closer with each passing day. When he first came he'd thought he might be very embarrassed and refuse anything, but he'd opened up more. Well, until…

"Okay class, today we're trying to go a step further," Naomi announced at the afternoon class, and everyone looked her way, stopping what they were doing. "I know it might be a little transgressive, but it's an important part of the education,"

"What is it, sensei?" the students asked, and she reached into her drawer and pulled out chalk. She went to the blackboard to write the next activity on it, and the class reacted loudly. Some gasped, some laughed and whistled. Aoba lost his breath.

"Kiss another person from the class," the blackboard read. Aoba couldn't concentrate anymore. He could refuse, right? He didn't want to have to kiss another person from class, especially not a man! And there was also the possibility that they could choose partners themselves, and…

"You can choose your own partner, this is simply for practice," Naomi affirmed. _Crap. _What should he do? Should he go over and tell her that he couldn't do this? That he'd already kissed more than enough men since he got here in the first place… Chances were that he might be paired up with a girl, but he still didn't know them well enough to want to kiss them..!

He stopped his thinking when he noticed something. It felt like something was drilling its way through his neck, and he thought he knew what it was. He turned around and saw Ryuuhou looking at him, licking his lips. _There's no way I'll pair up with that guy,_ he thought to himself. Anyone but him. Then he had an idea.

"Hey Clear?" Aoba called to his friend, who immediately hopped over to him while humming.

"Yes, Aoba-san?" Aoba thought for a second. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, wanna kiss me because I don't want to kiss someone I don't know'? No, that would be very mean. It would be more than that; it would be taking advantage of him in a way. He wouldn't want to be that kind of friend. And there was another thing…

"Say, Clear? How do you plan to kiss someone with your mask on?" Clear signaled for Aoba to come closer, and Aoba leaned his face towards Clear's.

"You know that I don't like to take off my mask, right, Aoba-san?"

"Yes?"

"Right. I have an agreement with Naomi-sensei that I don't have to take it off," Aoba thought that he heard a bit of sadness in his voice, but that thought was quickly abandoned when Clear lit up again. "So it's not a problem for me!" Aoba smiled and nodded, and figured he'd have to suck it up and find someone else.

He looked around to try and find someone who didn't already have a partner, but then he noticed; they all stood in pairs. All girls were taken and stood next to a guy or another girl, and the guys did the same thing. Even Ryuuhou had found a girl that he held his arm around, and made a fake pouting face towards Aoba. So now he and Clear were the only ones without partners.

"Good, now everyone's in pairs! Now you do like we talked about the other days; gaze into their eyes, lean in, and kiss," Naomi instructed the others, and Aoba was very confused. He couldn't do that, of many reasons. First of all he couldn't even _see_ Clear's eyes, and kissing was absolutely impossible. Maybe they'd have to wait for specific instructions.

Around them people began to follow their teachers instructions, and before they knew it everyone was kissing. Aoba couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable at the sight, but he didn't say anything. He noticed Clear was looking at him, even through his mask.

"I'm sorry that I can't do that with you, Aoba-san," he said, but Aoba shook his head. "It's fine, Clear, it really is. To be honest, I was still a bit uncomfortable doing it," he admitted, and Clear nodded understandingly. At least both of them could feel awkward together.

* * *

The class ended with a description of the feeling, and how no kisses felt weird at all. _How can they even say that__..? _Aoba thought, mostly because he was awkward himself. He'd got to get out of that shell, he knew that, or else he'd have an even worse time.

He and Clear met up as usual in front of the class and walked together to the cafeteria. They sat by their usual table with their food, today they served tomato omelets with a mushroom sauce, and waited for the others to drop in. First Koujaku came, then Sly, who sat down next to him. It was nice to see that they could even be in room together now without fighting, and they even joked to each other and talked like best buddies. This was nice. But Ren wasn't here yet.

"Where's Ren-san?" asked Clear, and Sly shrugged. "I think he went to talk to the headmaster or something," he said while stuffing his mouth with sweet potatoes. They decided to wait a bit more before calling him. Then they saw him walk over with his tray of food and a confused face.

"Hey Ren, where were you?" Koujaku asked, and made room for Ren to sit by him.

"Toue had asked me to come to his office. He asked if I knew anything about the crater in the floor, but I said that I don't know about it," he said, and then continued. "When he'd asked that, he wanted to know if I knew about something unusual about Aoba," Aoba froze. It couldn't mean that Toue saw him that time… could it? Why would he do that..?

"What did you answer?" asked Sly, who'd emptied his mouth to speak for once. "I said that I didn't, because… well, you're nicer than most guys, and you always light up when you smile and talk, and you always make us feel happy when we talk, and…" Ren stopped himself. Everyone looked at him, except for Aoba, who blushed a deep red, and looked away. Had he said something wrong? "So I said I hadn't noticed anything too unusual," He finished and stuck a spoonful of his food into his mouth in an attempt to soothe the awkward atmosphere. Koujaku was the first to speak afterwards.

"Why would he ask something like that about someone who goes here? Does he think that Aoba had something to do with it? When it was his own plan? Even though I still think it's fishy…" Aoba thanked Koujaku internally to fill out the silence, but he was right; why would he ask that? Aoba had nothing to do about it, and Toue had also said himself that it was a test of the floor. But it wasn't very convincing after all…

"Maybe you should go and see him to talk about it, Aoba-san?" said Clear very seriously, and it almost took Aoba by surprise. But he was right. It was all very fishy, as Koujaku had said… Aoba nodded, and promised he'd look into it, and then he quickly changed the subject to the upcoming winter party.

A few weeks ago, Toue had announced that the institution would have a party before the Christmas break. Actually, he'd introduced it more as a kind of ball, where people would dress fancily, a ballroom would be prepared, and a small orchestra would play classical music. Of course the decorations and food had to be top class; it almost came naturally with this place.

Aoba was kind of excited, although he was worried about a significant detail: he had no one to ask to the ball. Of all the girls he'd met, he'd not met a single one that quite interested him in the way he wanted to. He wanted to be swept off his feet by the right girl, but it hadn't happened. He'd kissed more guys at the Intimacy Institution than talked to girls, now when he thought about it. He had to do something about it… Walk up to some girl, any girl, and ask her if she wanted to do something with him. Maybe hang around in the entertainment rooms together, or go to one of their rooms and fool around… Yes, that was it!

After he'd eaten, he put his tray away, and looked to his friends. They were all parting, probably going to spend their evening alone for once, but Clear was still there. His masked face looked in Aoba's direction, and Aoba felt like he needed to ask something.

"Uhm, Clear?" He started out slowly, but it was hard with the words he wanted to say. "I haven't asked about it, but why do you wear a gasmask?" Clear stopped in his tracks next to Aoba, on their way out of the cafeteria. He became awfully quiet.

"It's alright, you don't have to tell me, I'm just cu…" Clear interrupted his sentence.

"It's because… my grandfather told me to never remove it," he then said. "If I do, I might get into trouble…" He looked down, as if he was ashamed.

"No, it's alright, Clear, I'll respe…"

"No, it's not okay, Aoba-san!" he suddenly burst out, taking Aoba aback. "It's the worst! _I'm_ the worst! I couldn't remove it earlier; I was too embarrassed to do it!" He sounded very bothered by this, and Aoba looked down. He wanted to understand, he really did. But he couldn't.

"Why can't you remove it though? I'm sure your face is nothing to be ashamed of," Aoba suggested, but Clear still shook his head.

"I was told to hide it away. I'm afraid I look like a monster, so I'll scare you away, and you'll hate me…" he said with a sad tone in his voice. Aoba wasn't sure what to say. Of course Clear wouldn't scare him away, they were good friends. And Aoba actually felt like he could be himself with Clear and the others. No, he had to fix this. Aoba grabbed his shoulder and squeezed them comfortingly.

"Of course not, Clear. You're my friend, so I'll never hate you, no matter what you look like," he said. Clear nodded, and looked like he was deep in thought.

"If Aoba-san promises not to hate me… or laugh at me, then… Oh wait, I almost forgot!" Clear's hands reached behind his head, so quickly that Aoba didn't notice it before Clear unfastened his mask, and took it off. He also didn't perceive anything of Clear's face, before it was too close to look, and… he felt a kiss on his lips. He would've jumped away immediately, if it wasn't because of the fact that he promised Clear not to run away. Clear kissed mildly, softly, carefully, as if not wanting to hurt Aoba in the slightest. He pulled away far enough for Aoba to see his face.

"I didn't kiss you in class before, so I owed you one!" Clear rejoiced, his attitude having changed completely. Aoba, still baffled, took a good look at his face: the white hair that he knew falling over his face, almost covering the light pink eyes that stared at him. He had two small moles under the right side of his lips, and they were honestly very charming. _So this is Clear… who kissed me._

Aoba took a deep breath, figuring he should assure Clear of himself before being chocked over the sudden kiss he'd just received… again.

"You don't look weird at all, Clear," said Aoba reassuringly, and Clear's face lit up. It was very different to see his actual expressions.

"Thank you so much, Aoba-san," he said, and then smiled. Aoba had to admit that he was very handsome under the mask. Clear nodded, and put the gas mask back on. "I'll be going. But I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and waved as he walked up the stairs in the big hall. Aoba was almost unable to move as he thought about what'd just happened. He didn't have a number of how many people he'd kissed at the institution anymore, he only knew it was becoming a lot. And a lot of them were guys… Maybe he was simply thinking too much over it. They weren't his choices after all, so he couldn't call himself… _gay_, could he?

He got himself together, and went back to his room up the stairs. Him gay? No way. He'd never ever thought about it before, not even when he was put on the bisexual route. Perhaps that was what triggered it. He had to talk to Toue about this, try to see if he could be moved to the straight route instead. And he also had to talk to him about what he asked Ren… He was getting much deeper into things than he ever thought he would.

Wait.

Someone stood by his door. Two tall men, knocking, looking through the gaps of the door. Aoba hid behind the corner of the hall, trying to hear what they were saying, but they simply said: "No one's there. We'll try again tomorrow." And then they left. Who could that have been..? He didn't even dare to think about it. He snuck around the corner again, going through his door, and locking it immediately. No one had been in the room, and he sighed. When would the worries even stop?

* * *

_Oh noooooo, Aoba, you're in so much trouble again, whatever will you do? I already have the next chapter in my head though, all I need to do is write it. I think you will love it ^^ Thanks for sticking around, and as always: please review if you liked the chapter, it helps me keep going! The more motivation, the faster I update. Just saying. If you have any questions or suggestions, please tell me, and I'll see if I can do something about it. Bye for now ^^_


	8. Chapter 8

**The Intimacy Institution**

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_If any of you have actually stuck, then congratulations! Here's a new chapter for you! For any new readers, hello, and welcome to this roller-coaster of drama that is The Intimacy Institution. It's been almost a year since the last update, and I've many times tried to force myself to write, but I just couldn't remember anything. I didn't want to discontinue the story, so here it is. I can't promise a new chapter will come out soon, but since I know you guys love it, I will make an effort to write more. I'll have more time to anyways. So yes, enjoy this chapter._

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Chapter 8

He woke up a bit before his alarm clock. Trying his best to forget the two by his door the day before, he would try to get into his daily rhythm again. But how could he even? So many things had happened…

He was still surprised, and secretly glad, that he got to see Clear's face. It was nothing like he'd imagined. Clear had talked about it like it was awful, maybe even scary, but it was pleasant. And then he'd kissed him. It was hard to admit, but it felt nice in a way. Maybe he was just lonelier than he'd first thought. He really needed a date…

He also thought hard about the two people in front of his door yesterday night. Did he know them? Why would they try to get into his room? Did they need to speak to him?

Aoba shook his head to forget about it; now wasn't the time. He needed to get ready for today's classes, and then find a girl, march up to her, and ask her if she wanted to do something later. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.

* * *

After a nice shower and getting dressed in the usual blue uniform, he left his room, on his way to the cafeteria. The days had begun to melt together, like he was stuck in the same routine: wake up, eat breakfast, go to a class, lunch, the next class, hang out in the entertainment room, dinner, sleep, all with Koujaku, Ren, Clear, and Sly. It might be nice with a change, and hanging out with a girl.

As usual, Koujaku waited for him at the cafeteria entrance. He smiled at him, and they went in together, finding a table large enough. Soon after their friends joined in as well, and all begun eating and talking as usual. Clear mentioned something about Naomi and the class from the day before, but said nothing of the kiss they shared. _Phew._

Aoba couldn't help but look at Ren though. Ren was gay, right? His green uniform at least said so. How could he be sure though? He knew very well that you were born gay and didn't suddenly have a realization of it, but was it possible that he'd never thought about it? He couldn't decide if he found men or women most attractive, since it all seemed to blur together. He really needed a date.

As they got up to split for their classes, Aoba couldn't help but stare after Ren while he walked. Maybe Sly was right… Maybe you didn't have to be gay to recognize a good ass. He suddenly blushed hard and shook his head. _He's my friend, I shouldn't look at him like that! _he thought to himself, pushing away the imagination.

Their classes went on as usually, but now starting to prepare them more for finding a partner for the ball. Since the ball was a kind of exam, a chance for them to put some of the things they'd learned to use, Aoba thought it important to have not just a date, but the perfect date for this occasion. He listened more observantly than usually, trying to get tips. However, he noticed that the women around him all started getting invitations for the dance by others, and there didn't seem to be others left than a few guys and girls. He had to be quick.

The class finally ended, and Aoba had sit with his eyes on a girl in the back of the class with light brown hair and a pink bow over her ponytail. A real girly girl. Perfect. Aoba wasn't too nervous in asking her out, which he thought was unusual of him. He walked up as soon as others had left the class. She stood and packed her things together as he approached, smiling to him. "Oh, Aoba, right?" she asked him, and he nodded with a smile. "Yes, that's me. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me?" he quickly asked, scared to lose his courage again. She looked at him for a bit, before smiling and nodding. "Sure! It sounds fun." He smiled victoriously, and while he was brave, asked her out. She accepted, and the two left the classroom arm in arm. _Yes!_

* * *

The two went to the entertainment rooms together, and Aoba discreetly sent a message to Koujaku, saying he was sick and couldn't join them today, praying to the gods that they wouldn't find them there. Why couldn't he just tell them where he was? Was he embarrassed? No… It was a surprise, so he could show them his new girlfriend.

Aoba suggested a movie in the cinema, and they went into the dark room. He wasn't really sure what movie was on. He just wanted to hide…

They sat in the back of the room, and she looked to him with a smile, starting to talk. "I was surprised you asked me out. I didn't know you liked me. I'm really excited! You seem like such a nice guy…" she spoke, but Aoba didn't seem to listen, his thoughts elsewhere. _I wish I could go here with Ren… as friends of course. _He noticed his date was silent, waiting for him to answer, and he smiled and nodded quickly. "Yes, sure!" She lit up in a smile, and Aoba sighed relieved. It was the right answer it seemed…

The date went on, and they ended up with hands crossed together and with her head on his shoulder. He thought it was nice, very nice even. He was finally on a date, as he wanted to. But something still nagged him at the back of his head. He put his arm around her and pulled her closer, and she looked up at him with a sweet smile. She leaned up and kissed him gently, and Aoba seemed a bit surprised at first, before relaxing. _Whatever, it's happened a million times now_.

They held the kiss for a while before she pulled back, grinning a little. "That felt nice," she remarked, and he simply smiled in response. They sat through the rest of the film, Aoba not really following the story, before leaving the room as the film ended. The girl still held his hand, and he smiled at the pleasant feeling. "I promised to meet up with some of my friends, so I'll go for now. But I'll see you, Aoba!" she rejoiced, in the moment, reminding him a bit of Clear. "See you-" he started, but then realized: he didn't even know her name. He waved goodbye as she left, smiling awkwardly. _That was pleasant! She's like a siste-_…

* * *

He stopped the thought before it was even over. A sister? How could that be? They kissed and everything. _Maybe not a sister, but a nice friend_. He couldn't believe himself. A friend? But it had been a date! He invited her out himself! How could it have felt so friendly? It was like they'd been friends for ages, but lovers? There was no way… Then maybe there was something to it. He could be gay. The thought itself was crazy, but… with the evidence, not impossible. _I need to talk to Koujaku_… _Alone._

He left the entertainment room and rushed down the halls, almost getting lost in the place he knew so well by now. He finally reached the hall of the straight route, knocking on Koujaku's door. It soon opened, and he stepped out, looking confused. "Aoba? I thought you were sick?" Aoba looked down in shame, mumbling. "I lied… But I need to tell you something important." Koujaku seemed a bit shocked at first, then shrugged, letting him inside the identical room. "You better have a good reason to have lied… we missed you!" Aoba went inside and sat on the bed, sighing and nodding.

"There is… I went on a date with a girl today." he mumbled. Koujaku looked at him for a bit, then lit up in a smile. "Really? That's great news! But why couldn't you tell us?" Aoba looked down and mumbled yet again, embarrassed to speak. "Because… I was a bit ashamed. I didn't really enjoy it that much. It might be because I don't know her well, but… I couldn't help but think that it wasn't a real date, just a get-together. I'm on this bi-route, but what if I'm actually bi for real?" he said worried, looking up at Koujaku, who stood shocked. "B-bi..?" Aoba nodded. "I've had so many guys kiss me, and it really sparked something in me that I never felt before! Embarrassment, sure, but… something else too. I kissed my date, and it just… was dull." Koujaku still stood frozen, looking at him confused.

"I thought that… you were straight..?" he mumbled. Aoba shrugged. "I'm not sure anymore… I should really test this out… What if I'm only confused, and it's nothing? I need to know." Koujaku huffed and looked down. "How are you gonna do that?" Surprised by his suddenly hostility, he crossed his arms. "I don't know… kissing guys I guess?"

Koujaku quickly looked up at him. "Aoba, are you serious? You're not just kidding? You're gay?" he asked, not seeming like himself anymore. Aoba tilted his head at this, nodding slowly. "Yes… If this is an Intimacy Institution, this is the best time to figure out if it's true, right? Just please don't tell the others, it's a secret between us…" Koujaku slowly nodded, looking down to his feet. "I hope you know what you're doing…"

* * *

Aoba left Koujaku's room, went to grab some quick dinner, and started going back to his own floor, seeming lost in thought. Gay, huh? Well, "half gay". Maybe the girl he had met just hadn't sparked his interest enough, although she was nice and pretty. She could literally have been his sister. _Oh no, I'm doing it again! _

When he thought about it though, there might not have ever been a spark with girls before. Sure, he'd had a few girlfriends before, but never anything serious, and he was never very interested in sex. Maybe that was why he was so shy about intimacy classes here. He wished strongly that he had someone to talk to about this, but they all seemed so scary to talk to about such a thing. Koujaku had been in shock, so he was definitely out of the question. He wasn't exactly in the mood for Clear's excitement and Sly's mocking comments either, so they were out as well. Maybe Ren?

Ren was gay himself, and seemed so casual and relaxed about that kind of stuff. He was open and calm, and a comforting response might just be what Aoba needed. He was the guy to go to for advice, without a doubt.

Aoba turned to walk to the homosexual route, glancing down at the hall with the crater. He still had to talk to Toue about being moved to a different route. And about why he wanted to talk to Ren… He turned yet again, walking to Toue's office, again greeted by Yoshie.

"Aoba-san! How nice to see you again! How have you been? How's your route?" she asked cheerfully, smiling at him from behind her desk. He was about to open his mouth and mention how he wished to go to the straight route before shaking his head, returning the smile. "It's going really well. I'm happy about it." Yoshie clapped her hands together a few times, squealing happily. "Oh, I'm so happy to hear that! I know it must've been very different, but I'm glad you're adapting. Any luck yet?" He was a bit embarrassed at the questions, but answered politely. "Not so far, but I haven't lost my courage. Is Toue here? I'd like to speak to him about something." Yoshie glances to the closed office door, then back to Aoba. "He's looking through some old work I think. Try and knock."

Aoba bowed as thanks, walking to Toue's door, taking a deep breath, and then finally knocking. In the moment, he started panicking a bit, since he hadn't really figured out what to say yet. "_Hello sir, why are you making my friends spy on me?_" didn't really seem polite in this context after all. Before he could think further, Toue opened the door up and looked down at him, a slightly creepy smile on his lips. "Aoba-san. Come in."

* * *

Aoba sat down in Toue's office in front of his desk and folded his haps in his lap, mostly to occupy them. Toue sat down in front of him and leaned over his desk, staring directly into his eyes, and somewhat annoying Aoba. "So, what can I do for you? How's your route?"

"It's good, I feel comfortable there," he replied, trying to stare back at intimidating, failing at this though. "Good to hear you're happy with the outcome. Again, I'm sorry about the misunderstanding, but it turns out it worked out for the better, right? Also, we'll have another joining the bisexual-route as well. I believe you've met him before. 'Noiz', was it?" he asked and raised a brow at Aoba, who looked at him surprised. "Oh, yeah, I know him. He's a bit, uhm… But he'll be in the bi-route as well? I'll make him feel welcome then." He responded, just remembering the awful and sudden kiss that Noiz had given him. _I'll be nice for Toue. If it'll bring me closer to an answer_.

"Also, Toue? I was wondering if you have private conversations with attendants in here? About class progress or if someone's unhappy about their route or something like that? I considered it in the beginning, so I was curious if someone else might've thought of the same at one point." He said as casually as possible, even shrugging. Toue narrowed his eyes at him though, and Aoba suddenly felt nervous for asking the question. "Why would that be interesting for you to know, what I speak to people about?" _Busted…_

"I just thought I could try and talk to them, to maybe help them adapt like myself, right? Maybe they'd like to talk to someone," he spoke, trying to save the situation. "No one here needs any special treatment. If they wish to switch routes, they may speak to Yoshie-san out there. Now go back to your room, Aoba-san. And be safe on your way back. Can't have any attendants here get harmed," he spoke coldly, getting up to open the door for Aoba. He quickly got up and bowed as he left the room, waving as he passed Yoshie as well. Out of the office, he sighed relieved, stroking his hair back. "That was dangerous…" he mumbled to himself.

* * *

On his way back to his room again, he looked around the place, over the details in the walls and wallpaper of the halls, the columns on each corner, the wind blowing the light snow around outside, how the floor seemed to come closer and closer…

_Thud._

If there was something Aoba was getting tired of, it was unexpected obstacles in his way. He had landed on his knees, his hands having taken the fall instead of his face, and he grumbled at the pain. "Ow, ow… I swear..!" He got to his feet again and looked behind him on the floor for the thing that tripped him. _Uh oh…_

Another package. Brown, neatly wrapped, with a string out in one end. He knew what that was. A bomb.

He started panicking and looked around him. What if it was already set to go off? Should he warn someone, should he-

"You again." He heard that deep masculine voice again behind him, turning around to see the tall dark man. "Y-you…" Aoba stammered out as he stepped back, tripping over the bomb again, landing on his back. He glanced around, feeling his heart beat faster and faster. He gulped and looked up at the large man. "I-I didn't mean to… I'll go now!" He quickly got to his feet, but the man grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, slamming him hard against the wall next to them.

"Ow, that really hurt!" Aoba whimpered, but the man seemed to ignore this. He kept full eye contact for a bit, then pulled back a little. "You're not Toue's secret weapon…" he mumbled, and Aoba quickly shook his head. "No, of course not! I'm not with Toue at all!" The man shoved him into the wall again, and Aoba groaned at the pain again. "You were just in his office. What for?"

Aoba felt a moment of courage within him, snarling back at him. "I was asking about why he calls in people for talks, especially my friend! Now they think I'm in on the bombing of the front hall, thanks to you!" The man squeezed his shoulders, making Aoba squirm at the pain. The man then suddenly leaned in and held his face, kissing Aoba deeply and messily. "Mphf?!" he mumbled muffled in response, trying to push him back with no luck. He pulled back on his own though, looking at him coldly still. "You're in now, understood? You'll not speak a word to anyone. Toue is evil, and I'll tell you why. Meet me tomorrow night in front of the building, ask for Mink. Make sure to be alone. Now get out of here unless you wanna blow up."

Aoba nodded quickly, still looking at him confused. The man named Mink now steps back and walks away with long quick strides. Aoba finally gets himself together, then quickly gets himself together, running towards his own route. _What just happened..? Toue is bad? That kiss…_

He finally reached his room, and outside of it stood Koujaku. He didn't seem like himself, as he stood with his head hung low, and without his usual smile. He lifted his head to look at Aoba, waiting for him to approach. "Koujaku? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" he asked, and his friend simply cleared his throat, blushing as he spoke. "Aoba… I'm sorry if I made you feel weird earlier. I wanna help you find out what you need to find out."

Aoba smiled at this, hugging him tightly. "Thanks, Koujaku. It really means a lot to me," he grinned, pulling back to look up at Koujaku. He was surprised however, when Koujaku leaned in to plant a gentle kiss on his lips. Aoba looked at him surprised, but fighting his usual urge to pull away, he closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, leaving his hands to rest on Koujaku's shoulders. He finally pulled back and looked down at his blue-haired friend, gulping. "I-I'm sorry… Don't tell anyone I did that," he mumbled, seeming even more embarrassed than Aoba. "No, it's okay… I'll go to sleep, so I'll see you for breakfast, alright..?" he mumbled in response, walking past him and inside his own room, closing and locking the door. _Just in case… turns out I'm popular now._

How come he was getting kisses from all angles? First his date, which was somewhat of a letdown, then that weird Mink that seemed to be both warm and cold at the same time, and his best friend Koujaku… The latter was the most puzzling of them all. Koujaku was on the straight route, and he'd been there for years. So why he would suddenly kiss Aoba was a mystery to him. Maybe he just wanted to help like he said? There was definitely something to tell Ren the next day. He was getting all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about seeing Ren again. _Oh no_…

* * *

_I hope this was worth the wait. It was written in an afternoon, but my passion is rekindled for this fanfic, so I'll do my best to keep going. Please review what you like/don't like about this, and maybe even who you'd like Aoba to end up with. I'm always open to suggestions. Bye for now._


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